Canada’s Secretary of Transportation has spoken of “unacceptable problems” that continue to lead to significant delays at Canadian airports after images appeared on social media showing hundreds of luggage piled up at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Toronto Airports Authority, which operates Toronto Pearson, told CP24 on Tuesday that a number of problems over the past few days have led to “baggage challenges”, including “flight delays and cancellations, staff shortages and temporary mechanical baggage disruptions. system. “
So far, dozens of people have talked about losing their luggage in Pearson, including a woman who said her bag was lost once on the way to Phoenix and then back to Toronto, which led to a disappointing “suitcase hunt for garbage. ” Which, in the end, proved fruitless.
Numerous images were also shared on social media showing huge piles of luggage in the luggage collection area in Pearson, which passengers had to look for in the hope of finding their missing bags.
“What we are seeing today is that while many of these issues from the Canadian Air Security Authority and the Canadian Border Security Agency have improved significantly, we continue to see delays, cancellations and baggage issues,” he said. transport Omar Algabra to reporters in an unrelated message on Wednesday. .
“I held talks with the four largest airports and the two largest airlines on Thursday and will soon hold follow-up talks with them. They know they need to add more resources and are working on it and we offer our support to address these issues. But these are unacceptable problems. “
Toronto Pearson has been plagued by months of delays amid rising demand and a shortage of staff.
Algabra said that at this time, the federal government has done everything in its power to solve the problems at airports, including increasing staff at customs and checkpoints.
He said his government was also considering “possibly extending the suspension” of random tests for COVID-19, which were due to be canceled on July 1st.
This, he said, is because it takes longer than expected to handle the logistics of moving testing off-site.
“What we are seeing is an increase in the demand for air travel beyond what one expected, and this is honestly good news. But the surge in demand is outpacing the ability of airlines and airports to improve the resources they need to meet the surge, “he said. “So we work with airlines and airports to ensure that the necessary resources are addressed to the schedule adjustments that are needed. Because we also see extreme peaks at certain times of the day. “
THE MAYOR OF TORONTO WILL SPEAK WITH AIR CANADA
Many of Toronto Pearson’s baggage problems are reported to be related to Air Canada flights.
In a statement to CP24 on Tuesday, Air Canada said that “avoiding baggage delays is a top priority” as they are “intermittent and inconvenient” for customers and lead to additional costs that the airline will eventually have to bear. .
Photo of luggage piled up at Pearson International Airport over the weekend
But they said that with the “well-documented problems” that plague airports and lead to last-minute flight cancellations, there are simply more cases of delayed baggage.
“I think the overall record is better today at the airport than a few weeks ago, and I think there’s every reason to believe that progress will continue,” Toronto Mayor John Torrey told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.
“Personally, I’m not familiar with the exact way luggage is handled, but it certainly occurs to me from my limited knowledge that most of the responsibility lies with the airlines, so I will take on light of what happened to be in touch with Air Canada. and to understand from their point of view what the problem is, what they are doing to solve their part of it and whether they believe that governments in the broadest sense can be useful to make things work better so that luggage problems do not occur. “
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