Date of publication: June 10, 2022 • 3 hours ago • 7 minutes reading • 108 reviews Travelers wait in line at Toronto Pearson Airport Terminal 1, May 9, 2022. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / National Post
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Ryan Whitney’s airport horror story was all over social media on Monday and I watched the video of his outrage with a bit of horror.
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The former NHL player and current podcast presenter and liquor dealer had tried to fly from Edmonton to Boston via Toronto, but was trapped in teams at Lester B. Pearson Airport that lasted several hours, causing him to lose connections. . He called the airport “the worst place in the world” and also “Hell on Earth”. I had a flight at 8am from Pearson on Tuesday. How early should I get there to face giant lines? Five in the morning? Four; I arranged the arrival at 5 in the morning, because every earlier you feel that you woke up in the night and not early in the morning. Just after 10 p.m. On Monday, as I was about to attempt a restless sleep, a text message arrived from Air Canada: The flight was canceled due to crew restrictions. Although this sounds like the crew being tied up against their will, it is a term that describes one of the domino problems that have grown amid rising air travel delays in this country, with Pearson at its center. If a crew works after a set number of hours, something that happens as delays accumulate at each end of a flight, then they will not be able to continue their next scheduled trip. The crew is thus limited.
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And so it started, which was going to be a relatively small, yet quite obvious, series of races as I was trying to complete what was supposed to be a fast-paced journey. It’s a window into the unholy chaos of air travel right now, a situation that has arisen for many reasons and which has caused a really remarkable amount of fingerprinting between services. Entering the customs room at Terminal 1 in Pearson on Wednesday night, a screen was set up: “We apologize for the delay,” he said. The message indicated that the federal government’s ongoing health protocols were to blame for the long, crazy series of passengers trying to cross the border. It’s more complicated than that. But the lesson for now, and probably during the summer, is that there is no such thing as a short flight. Especially if it starts, ends or even goes through Pearson’s cell of misery.
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Moments after I received this text about the flight cancellation, another one arrived from Air Canada. My airline had booked again automatically. (Nice!) I was now scheduled for a flight at 9am. for Baltimore who first went to Montreal. (Hmm.) And he had a wait of 3.5 hours. (OPA, what?) This is one of the problems revealed by the escalating series of delays. Airline automation systems are not big picture thinkers. Why would I want to fight the Pearson rush early in the morning to end up spending half a day at the Montreal terminal? An afternoon flight from Toronto, which would take me to Baltimore a little later, but without the extra leg, made more sense.
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That was the idea though. Arriving at Pearson on Tuesday afternoon, steely for chaos, I sailed through projections and customs. The problems that have been cited as the main factors in the midst of the airport craze of recent weeks, lack of staff in security checks and border checks, are at their worst at peak times, such as the dawn. The process in quiet times can be completely serene. But after a long wait at the gate, another text from Air Canada: The flight was delayed due to airport restrictions. Another text, announcing a new delay for the same reason, arrived a short time later. Strangely, the plane was sitting there at the gate, ready to roll. Our pilot would eventually explain that the restrictions were actually at the other end, where Baltimore-Washington International had to release a gateway for us. We left.
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Duncan Dee, a former Air Canada executive, posted a series of social media posts this week that nicely explained the airline’s struggles. Many hours of security and customs delays start the next delays throughout the process – check-in, luggage, boarding – because the airlines are staffed in a way that presupposes an efficient system. Once he throws a key in the hull, the whole thing goes awry and passengers learn about terms like crew restrictions, airport restrictions and customs requirements. Dee has been circulating in the media ever since, arguing that the Trudeau government’s ongoing pandemic policies, which include mandatory vaccinations and evidence to be upgraded to ArriveCAN, have exacerbated staffing problems. pandemic increasing significantly. the time required to process a passenger at the border control.
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More travelers wait in line at Toronto Pearson Airport Terminal 1, May 9, 2022. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / National Post Industry groups and opposition politicians have called on Ottawa to lift travel restrictions, as has been the case in most Western nations, to help speed things up. The government responded by saying it had hired more security inspectors. With air travel still well below pre-pandemic levels and the busy summer season ahead, this does not seem to be very good either. On Wednesday it’s time to go home and start having fun again. Although I uploaded my vaccination receipt to both ArriveCAN and Air Canada, I was unable to obtain a boarding pass as the airline said I had to pick it up at the airport. I went early in case there were queues. And, indeed, Air Canada controlled flights to both Montreal and Toronto and everyone had to use an agent because they wanted to see evidence that we had successfully navigated the ArriveCAN application.
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An airport official told me this was a relatively new thing: Because there was such a customs team in Toronto, they now wanted someone to make sure everything was completed correctly at the departure end. The confusion he added was that passengers passing only through Pearson on the way to another country had to fill out an ArriveCAN form, with all the documents he required. The passengers were upset when they got to the point where he asked for the address where they were staying in Canada: “But I do not live there!” They were told to enter the address for Pearson. An employee wrote it down with a red marker on a piece of paper and posted it on the check-in counter. There was more confusion as passengers learned that Pearson was in Mississauga, which is a difficult city at first, and reading a handmade sign. A friend who was going to Thailand via Montreal was in front of me in line. An American in the US Navy was mostly confused with the whole bureaucracy as he took a photo of his passport while it was perched in his luggage. “Canada, man,” he said.
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What else to say? ‘Have a good run?’ It took more than an hour to cross this line. My real time at the counter was, maybe, 30 seconds. As soon as he arrived at the gate, it became clear that the issues remained. Flights to Montreal and Toronto both used the same gateway, so we did not go anywhere until they were cleared. Finally a text arrived: Delay due to delayed aircraft entry. Forty-three minutes later, another text saying we would be gone in 25 minutes, which was weird because the Montreal plane was still sitting there and no one was in it. After another 32 minutes, another delay. The Montreal flight landed there. There was talk of a system reset, the plane was tantamount to disconnecting and then reconnecting. Toronto passengers were told to move the gates and get off at the terminal.
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After two more announced delays – the last of which was still “under investigation” – we boarded and took off, not more than two hours late. As we approached Pearson, passengers around me asked about their connections to Toronto. “When does he board?” “Now.” The flight attendants responded with the verbal equivalent of the emoji with clenched teeth. What else to say? “Have a good run?” A traveler rests in Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson Airport, May 9, 2022. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / National Post The pilot came in and apologized for the delay, which was due to “circumstances beyond our control,” he said.
