Tempers are running thin at Canadian airports this week as authorities deal with a surge in travel combined with a staffing shortage. And it may take weeks to fix things.
Yours truly went through Toronto Pearson security around 4:30 p.m. today (May 2), and it was far more crowded than usual. It was also very crowded in the main check-in areas.
Travellers at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport are being asked to pack plenty of patience on Monday as longer than expected lineups and Canada-wide staffing shortages cause delays.
Matthew Green, the NDP MP for Hamilton Centre, reached Pearson airport about 90 minutes before his 8:10 a.m. domestic flight to Ottawa, according to the CBC. He says he arrived to find about 500 people lined up in the airport outside of the gate, in what he described as a “disorganized, chaotic conga line.”
What became immediately apparent, Green says, is that the airport was “completely understaffed, unprepared, and unable to accommodate the bottleneck that was happening there.”
“Delays at @catsa_gc security screening points are causing longer than expected line-ups. If flying from Pearson today, leave yourself lots of extra time and check your flight status with your airline or on our website at https://tpia.co/2GTzqFG prior to leaving for the airport,” Toronto Pearson officials said on Twitter today.
When asked about the cause for the delays, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) told CTV News Toronto they are experiencing issues with staffing.
“CATSA’s screening contractors are not immune to the recruitment and retention challenges experienced by the broader commercial aviation industry,” the CATSA said in a statement.
Vancouver/YVR this week also was hit with delays.
The CBC quoted Transport Minister Omar Alghabra as saying it could take a few weeks to straighten things out.
