It was established in 1993, after the demise of the previous service provider, Gray Coach. The service operated 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It ran at 20-minute intervals during peak times and 30-minute intervals off-peak.[1]
Airport Express (and Gray Coach before them) formerly operated two additional routes, one connecting the airport to Islington subway station and the other to Yorkdale and York Mills stations. These were withdrawn in 2000 after the TTC introduced a competing express bus service from Kipling station, which charges regular TTC fares but until 2013 used regular TTC buses with no space intended for luggage.[2]
In June 2011, Toronto Airport Express began a connecting, on-demand service called Airport Express Connect that extended the regular scheduled service throughout downtown Toronto. Pacific Western was named the IMG Operator of the Year for 2010. Coach 1559 had a new wrap reflecting this honour, replacing the Young Explorers wrap that had been on this bus.
Closure
The service ceased operation on October 31, 2014 due to declining ridership, which had fallen from 400,000 to 190,000 in ten years. The decline was attributed to the popularity of the Billy Bishop airport and delays due to downtown road construction. The closure of the service was in anticipation of the Union Pearson Express rail service which began operation in 2015.[3] Staff and buses were re-deployed back into Pacific Western's other operations in Toronto.
In response to the closure of Pacific Western's service, the Toronto Transit Commission enhanced its Route 900 Airport Express[4] express bus service between Kipling subway station and the airport by retrofitting buses with luggage racks and increasing the frequency of buses on the route.
