Toronto Pearson celebrated another milestone on Monday, January 28.

At 10:25 a.m., a CanJet 737 aircraft destined for St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport was deiced at the Central Deicing Facility (CDF), becoming the 100,000th aircraft to be deiced in the facility’s 10 years of operation. CanJet Captain Mike Grass and First Officer Gary Decker received congratulations from the CDF General Manager Ken Eastman upon arrival at the CDF.

“We are very proud to have reached this important milestone in deicing operations,” remarked Joe Forbes, Senior Manager, Deicing Operations for the GTAA. “Safety is a cornerstone of our operations at Toronto Pearson and at the CDF we strive every day toward that end. Reaching the milestone of 100,000 deiced aircraft reinforces the importance of this facility to ensure safe winter operations.”

The GTAA has made the development of a dependable and effective deicing facility a key element in its winter weather operational plans. As the largest central deicing facility in the world, the CDF can accommodate six wide-body aircraft or 12 narrow-body aircraft at one time. As owner of the facility, the GTAA contracts Servisair to manage the deicing operations. In the 2006-2007 winter season, more than 10,000 aircraft were deiced at the CDF.

Toronto Pearson’s CDF also is home to its own Glycol Processing Facility. This facility—in its first full season of operation—allows the GTAA to process high concentrate spent fluid, producing a product which is then sold to a secondary market. This allows the GTAA to offset some of the cost of operating the CDF while fulfilling the GTAA’s mandate to manage its environmental footprint.

The process of deicing an aircraft is an integral part of safe winter travel. Aircraft are sprayed with a mixture of water and ethylene glycol to remove contamination from the aircraft surface caused by ice or snow. A failure to remove this contamination can affect the ability of the aircraft to generate lift and achieve a smooth flow of air.

Because of the length of the winter season in Toronto and the variety of winter precipitation we experience, it is incredibly important to have a reliable and capable deicing facility at the largest airport in Canada. The GTAA is pleased with what has been accomplished at the CDF during the past 10 years and looks forward to continued successful operations.