CASE STUDY
Improved distribution of trucks per aircraft: How Toronto Pearson Airport managed to increase utilization of the largest deicing facility in the world.
Toronto Pearson Airport
50.5 mill. passengers (2019)
181 Destinations
Toronto Pearson Airport is located in Ontario, Canada. It is the largest and busiest airport in Canada, handling 36.3 million passengers in 2022. As of 2019, it was the 20th-busiest international air passenger gateway in North America and the 29th-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic. Toronto Pearson is the primary hub for Air Canada.
Toronto Pearson is operated by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) as part of Transport Canada’s National Airports System. The airport also maintains facilities for United States border preclearance.
An extensive network of non-stop domestic flights is operated from Toronto Pearson by several airlines to all major and many secondary cities across all provinces and territories of Canada. Since 2014, over 75 airlines operated around 1,250 daily departures from the airport to more than 180 destinations across five continents.
Introduction to the collaboration with Toronto Pearson Airport.
Copenhagen Optimization conducted a deicing pad capacity study for Toronto Pearson Airport.
The aim of the study was to assess the current demand for deicing pads to understand whether the current capacity is sufficient.
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The Solution: Capacity study on deicing pads
The Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) engaged with Copenhagen Optimization to create a capacity assessment of the Central Deicing Facility (CDF) – the largest deicing facility in the world with room for deicing of 12 aircraft simultaneously.
The study included a thorough analysis of all assumptions applied in the capacity assessment, including deicing times under various weather conditions.
Several options for optimizing the deicing pad operation was identified through the study with the main initiative identified being an improved distribution of trucks per aircraft.
Outcome achieved:
- Significantly increased understanding of the capacity of the CDF at all organizational levels.
- Valuable insights to the deicing pad operation in different weather conditions created.
- Fact-based dialogue with airlines established.
Final thoughts
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