Travelers at Pearson International Airport in Toronto have been asked to be very patient on Monday, as longer-than-expected trains and staff shortages across Canada are causing delays.
“It’s funny – it’s really not well organized,” said Adam Brazer, who is returning to PEI with his family.
“A lot of people are going in the wrong lines right now because there is no one to tell us which lines to go on.
Matthew Green, an MP from the Hamilton Center NDP, arrived at Pearson Airport about 90 minutes before his domestic flight at 8:10 a.m. to Ottawa. He says he arrived to find about 500 people lined up at the airport outside the gate, in what he described as a “disorganized, chaotic conga line”.
What immediately became apparent, Green said, was that the airport was “completely staffed, unprepared, and unable to handle the obstacle that was going on there.”
Green missed her original flight, waiting two hours before boarding another.
I’m flying back to Ottawa this morning from
The building next to the gate is at a depth of at least 500+.
There’s no way I’m doing this flight at 8:10 pic.twitter.com/CAMdtxOwOs
– @ MatthewGreenNDP
The airport sent a message on Twitter on Monday morning, advising passengers to leave a lot of extra time and check the status of their flight before leaving for the terminal.
“We would like to remind passengers that terminal staff are doing their best to get them to leave,” the airport said in a statement.
Shortage of staff, medical examinations causing delays
Several Canadian airports have had frustrated passengers in long queues due to a shortage of security guards.
Vancouver has seen particularly long waits, with passengers saying they also missed domestic flights due to delays in security checks.
In an email to CBC News, the Canadian Air Safety Authority (CATSA) said it was working hard to address the problem, but could not find enough workers.
CATSA, the federal crown corporation responsible for all passenger security checks, says it will take time to recruit enough staff to train them.
Travelers at Pearson International Airport in Toronto are waiting in long lines to enter their gates on Monday. (Chris Langenzarde / CBC)
Pearson also says health examinations to cover the increased number of passengers have doubled processing time.
Green called it “completely unacceptable” that the airport could not have predicted delays as travel after the pandemic increased.
“What I heard from the staff is that this is the third day of essentially chaos,” he said.
“They knew it was happening, but we didn’t get word from Air Canada to come earlier.
Expect delays for the next few weeks
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Monday, Transport Minister Omar Algabra said he shared the concerns of travelers facing delays as the country continues to see a “huge resurgence of appetite” for travel.
“I am a traveler myself and I have seen the line-up increase over the last few weeks,” he said.
“Now we learn that once you turn off the economy, when you turn it back on, it comes with imbalances.”
Algabra says Transport Canada is working with CATSA, “ensuring that we have adequate resources to meet this influx of travel needs.”
Asked about the timeline when these problems can be resolved, Alghabra did not confirm.
“I don’t think we can solve this right away,” he said, adding that it would take at least a few weeks.
Passengers at Pearson Airport use electronic kiosks to check in for their flights on Monday. The airport says staff shortages across Canada and COVID-19-related health checks are delaying. (Chris Langenzarde / CBC)
Expecting long queues and a massive influx of passengers, Manvir Jutla arrived five hours earlier for his flight to Vancouver at 4 p.m.
“I don’t miss my flight,” he said with a laugh.
Jen Baba is not so sure.
“I’m a little stressed, we are [have] a lot of luggage, “she said.” I hope we’re not late. ”
Karan Panchal, who is traveling to India, said he was still unsure when even his flight would have to take off.
“My boarding pass has a different time and the flight time shown is different,” he said.
“It definitely affected my plan.”
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