Key facts
- Toronto Pearson won Best Airport Staff in North America in the 2026 Skytrax World Airport Awards.
- The award recognizes the quality of service provided by airport staff, including customer service personnel, security staff, immigration personnel, retail employees, and food and beverage workers in customer-facing roles.
- Skytrax evaluates airport staff based on factors including attitude, friendliness, and efficiency.
- Toronto Pearson received this recognition for the first time in 2026.
What is the Skytrax Best Airport Staff award?
The Skytrax World Airport Awards are among the aviation industry's best-known passenger experience awards. The Best Airport Staff award recognizes the combined quality of service delivered by front-line employees across an airport. The award specifically evaluates staff service attributes such as professionalism, friendliness, attitude, and efficiency.
Why Toronto Pearson was recognized
Toronto Pearson serves millions of passengers every year and relies on 52,000 employees working across airport operations, customer service, security, retail, food services, and other passenger-facing functions. In 2026, Skytrax recognized Toronto Pearson as the airport with the best staff experience in North America.
The recognition reflects the efforts of employees across the airport community who help passengers navigate their journeys, access information, move through airport processes, and receive assistance when they need it.
What “airport staff” means
For the purposes of the Skytrax award, “airport staff” includes many of the people travellers interact with during their airport journey:
- Customer information and passenger assistance staff.
- Security screening personnel.
- Immigration and border-processing staff.
- Retail employees.
- Food and beverage employees.
- Other customer-facing airport personnel.
The award reflects the overall service experience delivered across these front-line functions.
A shared achievement across the airport community
Toronto Pearson is home to a large and diverse airport ecosystem of more than 400 organizations. This includes airlines, service providers, retailers, and government agencies. Together, these organizations contribute to the passenger experience every day.
Announcing the award, Toronto Pearson President and CEO Deborah Flint said:
“These awards are a global round of applause for each of our employees dedicated to delivering excellent customer experience, day and night at Toronto Pearson.”
She added that airport employees help create “a warm smile and welcoming experience” for passengers travelling through the airport.
Frequently asked questions
What did Toronto Pearson win in the 2026 Skytrax World Airport Awards?
Toronto Pearson was won Best Airport Staff in North America.
What does the Best Airport Staff award measure?
The award recognizes staff service quality, including friendliness, efficiency, attitude, and professionalism among front-line airport employees.
Does the award recognize only Toronto Pearson employees?
The award reflects the passenger experience delivered by front-line staff across the airport environment, including multiple customer-facing functions identified by Skytrax.
Why does this recognition matter?
The Skytrax award is based on passenger evaluations of their airport experience and recognizes the people who help travellers move through the airport safely, efficiently, and confidently. The award generated media attention, with Islands magazine saying that Toronto Pearson “outshines San Francisco and New York LGA for North America’s Best Airport Staff.”
Is this the same as the Airport Council International’s Airport Service Quality awards?
No. The Skytrax award and Airports Council International's Airport Service Quality awards are separate recognition programs. In 2026, Pearson received the Airport Service Quality award for Best Airport at Departures: Over 40 Million Passengers in North America, recognizing excellence in service and passenger experience. This award was previously known as Best Airport over 40 Million Passengers in North America.