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I have a sort of technical question regarding the operations of runway systems at larger airports, specifically at Toronto Pearson (satellite view here). As far as I can see, the airport has 5 runways: 05, 15L/R, and 06L/R.

enter image description here
(Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Since RW05 and RW15L/R intersect it is clearly infeasible to operate RW05 at the same time as RW15L / RW15R. As for the rest, there are several ICAO guidelines regarding parallel or near-parallel runways. What do those restrictions imply regarding simultaneous operations?

  • Is it possible to operate RW06L and RW06R simultaneously, maybe in a segregated mode of operation? What about RW15L/R?
  • Similarly, can runways 15 and 06 be operated simultaneously?
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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for specifying Toronto Pearson, which is distinct from Pearson (KVUO). $\endgroup$
    – abelenky
    Jul 16, 2018 at 16:06
  • $\begingroup$ "Since RW05 and RW15L/R intersect it is clearly infeasible to operate RW05 at the same time as RW15L / RW15R." This is not clear to me. Obviously at the same exact moment in time you can only use one or the other of the intersecting runways, but that is not to say that using one removes the other from consideration. The controller simply has to ensure proper intersecting runway separation. $\endgroup$
    – randomhead
    Feb 17, 2021 at 1:37

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According to Toronto Pearson's official website, the airport operates in four main configurations, this is what they look like:

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Also judging by the satellite imagery, CYYZ is LAHSO enabled, that is the intersecting runways (05 and 33L, for example) can be used simultaneously. (It resulted in a near-miss back in 2002.)

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I don't separation distances between the runways, but 06L & 06R are pretty close, so I imagine they could only do staggered parallel use there. 15L & 15R are also pretty close, so would also limit them to staggered parallel use.

05 and 06L look far enough apart for simultaneous operation. In the US the requires distance is 4300 ft to give vortices a chance to dissipate and not affect a plane operating in parallel. I don't know if Canada has the same requirement.

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    $\begingroup$ In the US it can go down to 750' like at SFO. $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Jul 16, 2018 at 16:19
  • $\begingroup$ Is that for simultaneous parallel? The 2006 paper I cited in the SFO link says "ICAO and FAA have accepted closely spaced parallel approaches with the PRM as meeting the TLS. Extensive demonstrations and tests, consultations among the concerned parties, and sound judgments by operations experts finally led to reductions in the required spacing between parallel runways. The required spacing has now reached 3400 feet for parallel approaches, or 3000 feet if one of the approaches is offset by 2.5 degrees." $\endgroup$
    – CrossRoads
    Jul 16, 2018 at 16:31
  • $\begingroup$ @ymb1 SFO and similar only allow simultaneous operation on parallel runways that closely spaced in good weather. Fog at SFO cuts usage to a single runway, the source of regular horrendous delays there. $\endgroup$
    – Pilothead
    Jul 16, 2018 at 18:57

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