Toronto Pearson limo service

Arrivals: what actually happens after you land

Once your aircraft is on stand, the clock we care about starts. Our system is already tracking the flight, so the chauffeur has been holding in the cell lot rather than circling. You clear the aircraft, walk the pier, clear customs if you are arriving internationally, and collect your bags. When you have them, you message the chauffeur and the car is at the door by the time you reach it. That last step matters more than people expect - a car that arrives at the curb before you do is a car being moved on by an officer, which is why we hold and come forward on your signal rather than parking up hopefully.

Terminal 1 versus Terminal 3, and the codeshare trap

Terminal 1 handles Air Canada, its Star Alliance partners and most transatlantic traffic. Terminal 3 handles WestJet, Air Transat, most US carriers and a broad mix of international airlines. They are ten minutes apart on the LINK train and considerably longer by road at peak. The mistake we see most often is a terminal taken from the ticketed airline rather than the operating one - if you booked through one carrier and are flying on another's metal, the terminal follows the operator. Check the boarding pass, not the confirmation email, and tell us which one when you book.

Meet and greet, and when it is worth the supplement

Curbside is the default and the fastest way out of the airport. Meet and greet puts the chauffeur inside arrivals at the door with a name board, carrying your bags to the car, with terminal parking included in the supplement. It is worth it in four situations: a first visit to Canada, a passenger who has been travelling fifteen hours, an unaccompanied minor with airline release paperwork, and any client whose first impression of your company is the person holding that board. For a frequent flyer who knows Pearson, it is money you do not need to spend and we will say so.

Departures: how we calculate your pickup time

There is no flat rule and we do not publish one, because it would be wrong for most trips. The calculation runs on your exact address, the terminal, the airline, whether you are checking bags, whether the flight is domestic, transborder or international, and the hour the route will actually be driven. A 6am transatlantic departure from Oakville out of Terminal 1 is a completely different sum from a 2pm domestic hop from Markham out of Terminal 3. If an operator gives you the same answer regardless of those details, they are guessing.

Waiting time, in plain terms

Waiting on arrivals runs from touchdown, not from the scheduled arrival time. Domestic flights carry a shorter complimentary grace period than international ones, because international passengers have customs to clear. Beyond the included allowance it is billed in increments, and the exact allowance is stated on your trip confirmation. Because the trip is flight-monitored, a two-hour delay does not become a two-hour waiting charge - the pickup simply moves. That is the whole point of giving us the flight number.

Winter, de-icing and the honest advice

Between December and March we quote earlier pickups for the same flights and assign SUVs by default from the hill and escarpment areas. What we cannot control is the de-icing queue, which can add two hours to a departure while the road journey went perfectly. Airlines rarely cancel early in a storm, so the useful posture is to travel to the airport as planned, arrive early, and let the airline sort the schedule out with you inside the terminal rather than from a car park. More in our winter travel guide.

Getting to the terminal: the roads that decide the trip

Pearson is reached by Highway 427, Airport Road and the 401, and each behaves differently by hour. From the west and south, the 427 is the artery and its interchange with the 401 is the pinch point. From the north, Airport Road is often quicker than it looks. From the east, the 401 westbound in the morning is the single most unpredictable stretch on any of our routes - which is why a run from Scarborough or Ajax is quoted from the hour and not the distance, and why the 407 decision is made on the morning rather than in advance.

Which vehicle for the bags you actually have

The most common booking error at Pearson is a sedan for four adults with four large cases. It is legal, and it is uncomfortable. The rule we apply: if your group is at the passenger limit and the luggage limit at the same time, move up a class. Four travellers with four checked bags belong in an SUV; a group of eight with cases belongs in an executive van or Sprinter. Tell us the bag count at booking, not at the curb - it is the cheapest correction available.

Children, car seats and the rules that apply here

Ontario requires appropriate child restraints, and we supply and fit them - infant, convertible and booster - if you tell us the ages and weights when you book. Fitting a seat properly takes a few minutes, which is why it is arranged in advance rather than on arrival. Full detail is on the child safety seats page. Airlines will not always hold a gate-checked seat where you expect it, so the reliable plan is to have ours already in the car.

Connecting between Pearson and everywhere else

A significant share of our Pearson work is not a home pickup at all: it is a connection. An arrival at Terminal 1 continuing to Billy Bishop for a regional flight; a private arrival at Oshawa transferring west for a long-haul departure; a passenger overnighting at an airport hotel between two flights. These are the trips where booking as one journey with one operator matters most, because the failure mode of two separate bookings is a missed connection nobody owns.