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YYZ T3 international to international airside transit

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YYZ T3 international to international airside transit

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Old Mar 8, 2015, 3:07 pm
  #1  
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YYZ T3 international to international airside transit

Is is possible to transit at YYZ T3 int. to int. and remain airside all the time?


If not, how much time would be requiered to clear immigrations and return to departures?
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Old Mar 8, 2015, 3:15 pm
  #2  
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Clarify: Intl and US outbound are different

When you say intl to intl: Is your departure US or other intl? Inbound and outbound airline? One ticket or different tickets?

There is a big difference in the procedure and time required.
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Old Mar 8, 2015, 3:26 pm
  #3  
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By international I mean outside both Canada and US, so flight arriving and leaving will both be at T3 international gates.
There will be 2 separate tickets. No checked luggage.

I don't have an issue with going landside other than it will be a waste of time. I just want to go to the lounge as quickly as possible.
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Old Mar 8, 2015, 3:38 pm
  #4  
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Arrival and departure are segregated even at the same gate number. At T3 you would have to enter Canada through CBSA and then re-enter the intl departure area with CATSA security check using your outbound BP.
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Old Mar 8, 2015, 3:50 pm
  #5  
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OK, thanks for the answer. Becasue I saw something looking like escalators between arrivals and departures gates in the terminal map, I was hoping it was possible to bypass CBSA.

MCT is said to be 1 hour, so if all connecting passengers are entering Canada, security screened and then stamped out of canada again, it still should be a fairly efficient process? Can't be more than 30 minutes if normal passengers are supposed to make it in a 1 hour MCT.
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Old Mar 8, 2015, 4:14 pm
  #6  
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There is no connecting or normal entry separation at CBSA in T3.

Everyone goes through the same CBSA immigration procedure. The process depends on whether you are Canadian Resident and/or passport that you are entering with.

Canada does not have exit immigration. You go through CATSA security check and enter the intl departure area.

MCT is posted as one hour. Most FTers go by SCT (Sensible Connection Time). Number of heavy arrivals and departure at the same time as yours would factor into needing more SCT.

You can go to the airport site
http://www.torontopearson.com/
to check for arrival and departures at T3 the same time as yours and plan accordingly. Some arrival takes more time to process depending on the country of origin.
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Old Mar 10, 2015, 9:47 am
  #7  
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So I did count flights.

The hour before my arrival, T3 international has 2 narrow-bodies and 8 wide-bodies coming in. "My hour" there are 2 NB and 4 WB arriving. The hour after has 1 NB and 3 WB. A simple estimate then is 1800 pax, 1000 pax and 700 pax arriving each hour respectively.

So are 1000 pax an hour many or few pax for CBSA to handle?
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Old Mar 10, 2015, 11:09 am
  #8  
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It is the ones arriving before you which would potentially cause the bottleneck. I have heard horror stories of arrival rush hour and waiting 1 hour to get to CBSA entry immigration.

Departure is the same issue. WB heavies and their passenger load being processes by CATSA.

Sounds like you are arriving at the T3 WB heavies rush hour and my guess is that you will be departing during the WB heavies rush hour as well.

Safe plan would be 3 hours, 2 if you are lucky.
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Old Mar 10, 2015, 12:19 pm
  #9  
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Well, I have plenty of time so it will work. Just would have preferred to spend it in the lounge, but you can't win them all!
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Old Mar 10, 2015, 12:46 pm
  #10  
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Since my YYZ airlines are T3 based I can understand your desire.
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Old Jun 14, 2015, 6:11 pm
  #11  
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OP here, just doing a quick report back.

Arrived today at 1900. Deplaning, customs, check in, security and walk back to lounge: total 45 minutes, and of that was 5-10 minutes sitting down in departures hall contemplating things.

Customs was not very busy but if it is, at least there is a "connections" lane, that bypasses the cue maze and hopefully saves some time.
At check-in I was adviced to go to security early "becasue it will be busy", but now in the early evening it was a breeze.
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