Canceled flights and waiting hours at security and customs have become too common for many passengers trying to get to Pearson International Airport in recent months.
Some of the delays are due to a shortage of staff at the airport, while others are due to some remaining health checks for COVID-19, which are delaying customs processing time.
Last week, Toronto Mayor John Torrey called the Pearson chaos “unacceptable”, asking stakeholders to come together and find some solutions.
Former NHL player who hosted podcast Ryan Whitney also made headlines last week when his video documenting a particularly disappointing airport experience went viral, garnering millions of views on Twitter.
On Monday, CP24 spoke with Toronto airport spokesman Tori Gus for an update on the Pearson situation and the prospects for a busy summer travel season.
Gus also shared the latest tips on when to arrive at the airport if you have a departing flight.
Here’s what had to stay:
Has the federal government’s move to temporarily abolish random tests for COVID-19 for arriving passengers help?
Well, last weekend was the first with this change, the random testing break. So we only had a few days to judge, but we saw some improvement, there was a better flow for international arrivals, where we really saw some bottlenecks – passengers spending time waiting for planes and then going through customs. So we can say that he has made a small improvement.
We also saw additional staff. So things are evolving and we are looking positively at the summer season, which will really heat up over the next few weeks, and that will be the test.
How early do you have to get to the airport amid all these delays?
We still follow the same advice to passengers (issued earlier this spring), so if you are traveling within Canada, please arrive two hours before your flight, and if you are flying abroad, it is three hours.
Now the waiting time will vary during the day. It only depends on the flight schedules. There are some peak moments when we have more flights coming and going. But overall, this is a piece of advice for travelers.
We will also say that you know when you are leaving, please be prepared to go through the guards. CATSA has a lot of tips on what can be put in hand luggage and this is something you can do to speed up your journey and when you land here, if you are coming from somewhere abroad, you should really get this ArriveCAN app . The ArriveCAN app is the next thing we think we need to deal with, the government agrees with us that there are health checks on this that we need to streamline and that can help speed up passenger difficulties.
How about the hundreds of additional CATSA inspectors who have been hired? Did that help?
We know that there are additional staff. We are starting to see this based here. We are seeing improvements on both departures and arrivals. As we said, there was a slight improvement last weekend. So we are optimistic, but more needs to be done.
We know we need to make more changes so that we can be ready for this influx of summer travelers that we will really see. So, it’s getting busy right now, but really, when school comes out, that’s when some of the summer trips are really going to peak, and we need to be prepared for that, there’s more than needs to be done.
We expect the government to make more changes, but we are working together and we are confident that things will be a little better for passengers in the coming weeks.
Do you think that the airport has suffered any reputational damage?
Well, we also don’t like to see these things. So when we hear these words coming from other politicians and from passengers, whether it’s Ryan Whitney or other passengers, it’s not something we want to see and I will say that our staff is here on earth, we see and that first hand.
So, this is not something we like to see, this is not an experience we want our passengers to have, we want to be able to make them move smoothly. There were just some problems with the staff with the restart of the trip and these health check-ups were still included. So, it’s not easy to come to Pearson every day and see this, but we know that our staff here is coming together. We know that the experience has not been smooth and we really hope that with the steps that the government is taking
Add Comment