This is what Ryan Whitney, a former NHLer, said in a social media post from Toronto Central Airport this week. The former Edmonton Oilers defender has revealed his outrage after a series of queues, delays, cancellations and reservations during an Air Canada stop at Canada’s busiest travel hub. He said he landed at Pearson at 3 a.m. Sunday and did not take off for Boston until 1 p.m. the next day. “I’m so shocked at this place. It’s the biggest shame a person knows,” he told his 414,300 Twitter followers in a selfie video from the portal. “I will have a viral collapse.” Endless queues at customs and customs in Canada’s major airports — and especially in Pearson — were played throughout the spring, with the peak travel period being weeks away. While the federal government has pledged to cancel random COVID-19 tests at customs and hire hundreds more customs and customs checks, barriers ranging from staff shortages to asphalt delays threaten to turn into a hurdle-clearing problem. “I think it will only get worse,” Duncan Dee, the former chief operating officer of Air Canada, said in an interview. “The only consistent thing that has happened at Canadian airports for the past two months is that there have been delays.” Nearly half a million passengers were detained after arriving on international flights at Pearson Airport last month. About 490,810 travelers, or about half the arrivals from abroad, experienced delays as they sat on the tarmac or dumped to reduce pressure on overflowing customs areas, according to data provided by the Greater Toronto Airport Authority. In all, about 2,700 out-of-country flights were delayed at Pearson last month, compared to four planes – and a few hundred passengers – in May 2019. And passenger volumes are likely to increase, with summer holidays starting and the United States announcing on Friday that it will reduce COVID-19 test requirements for incoming air travelers from abroad from Sunday. The story goes on On Friday, the federal government announced that it would suspend randomized COVID-19 testing of vaccinated passengers from Saturday through at least June 30. The move nullifies the previous promise to keep the airport customs tests up to that date and meets industry requirements. hoping to handle travelers faster. The announcement came hours after Public Health chief Dr Theresa Tam said the randomized trials served as “an early warning system” that detects new variants as they are filtered across the country and indicates global trends such as overseas infection rates. Three in 100 tests remain positive, he said. The number of passengers is still at pre-pandemic levels, but Canada’s travel spending – on airlines, travel agents and car rental bookings – has surpassed 2019 levels since mid-March, the RBC chief economist said. Craig Wright, in a research note on Tuesday. Airlines are not set up to deal with the consequent long security and customs delays, Dee said. “This crew that was scheduled to fly you? Is it out of service because the flight they made this morning was closed for two hours,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the regulatory limits for flight crew working hours within one day. and four weeks. “Was this aircraft scheduled for your morning flight? Sorry, it lost its scheduled maintenance last night because it could not unload passengers on time because the customs room was full.” In the meantime, a flight missed due to a long queue or a delayed response flight may take up to six hours to be booked again — as in the case of Whitney — as agents to cover the customer service counter are still working to board. passengers on a different plane with a delay. Baggage handlers face similar jams. “It ‘s just falling apart,” said Helane Becker, an analyst at Cowen Banking, citing a lack of predictability. “The motto for summer is patience.” Between June 1 and 9, Air Canada canceled nine percent of its scheduled flights to Pearson, according to flight data company Cirium. Canceled flights were evenly distributed between arrivals and departures. “These days, airlines are facing the double standard of shortage of pilots, flight attendants and ground staff and, consequently, insufficient demand on their network,” said Cirium spokesman Mike Arnott. “Some planes are full and some are not.” Partially booked flights may be zeroed in order to divert passengers to other aircraft and increase efficiency. Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Association, headed to Salt St. Marie, Ont. for work on Thursday, but ended the wait on the Pearson asphalt before taking off for four hours after a boarding delay due to lack of flight attendants. “And then they said they had a flight attendant, but now they didn’t have a pilot, so they flew in from Montreal,” he said. After disembarking from the first Air Canada plane, he sat in a second for another two hours. “It was very disappointing.” Ottawa said the Canadian Aviation Safety Authority (CATSA) would have 400 more airport staff by the end of the month. However, the recruitment process takes time, as permission from one of CATSA’s three subcontractors and RCMP criminal history review is required, in addition to approval from the local airport authority and Transport Canada. There are also different levels of security clearance, with a “loose” clearance allowing the agent to check on boarding passes and a more difficult one to obtain a full clearance that allows for actual baggage control, said Teamsters Canada spokeswoman Catherine Cosgrove, who represents about 1,000 airport auditors. . An additional cross-border security clearance makes it more difficult to staff checkpoints on international flights, adding to their usually longer waiting times. “It’s like re-wiring a house while you still live in it,” he said. “It will take months to a year.” This Canadian Press report was first published on June 10, 2022. Companies in this story: (TSX: AC) – With records from Marie Wolf in Ottawa Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
