Canadian airports are feeling the pinch of staff shortages as air travel increases across the country.
Toronto’s Pearson International Airport is the hardest hit, but passengers at Calgary’s YYC International Airport say the delays are not exclusive to Canada’s busiest airport.
“I don’t go to Toronto much, but I’ve noticed a fair amount of delays here,” said Michael McGoldrick, who often flies to work.
“Flights are picking up again, tourism, all this has been accumulating for a long time. There are a lot of delays. I’ve noticed delays in my flights, and that’s why I’ve missed a couple of flights.”
Last week, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada announced that border restrictions would be extended to at least June 30.
This news has caused concern in some of the industry, including Monette Pasher, Acting Chair of the Canada Airports Council.
“We’re back to normal travel volumes – now at 70 percent. It’s very difficult to meet those public health restrictions,” Pasher told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday.
“We could handle it when we were in the middle of the pandemic and there weren’t many people moving, but now we’ve turned the corner and we really need to move forward.”
Pasher is also calling on Ottawa to lift the immunization mandate for federally regulated employees to help address the shortage of staff that affects everything from baggage handlers to airport security workers.
With the rising demand for air travel, these staffing challenges are at the forefront and center in the form of long queues and extended waiting times for anyone who wants to catch a flight.
“The lines are crazy. You have to get here three hours early just to pass security on time,” said Jodi Flodstedt, who was looking to catch a flight out of Calgary Thursday morning.
“We had a change of schedule, so instead of sitting for an hour in Vancouver, we’re now sitting there for four and a half hours.”
Still, Flodstedt is in a good mood.
“I think we just have to be grateful that we can go anywhere and keep it in perspective and just be grateful. First world issues.”
But it’s a different story for others who may have missed a connecting flight.
Several airlines in the United States and Europe have reduced their summer capacity to cope with staffing limitations.
However, the Canadian federal government has no plans to force airlines to reduce their flights.
“A few days ago, I told you that we added 450 employees to the Canadian Air Transport Safety Authority (CATSA). That number has now risen to 865 employees,” said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra.
“Anyone who understands the complexities of hiring 865 people in such a short time knows that this was a major success, and I want to thank CATSA. This will add a lot of resources to help CATSA.”
In a statement sent to CTV News by Air Canada, they acknowledge that the operations of the airport and airlines have been affected by staffing problems of third-party suppliers.
“Long processing times at airports and other restrictions resulting from problems with these external suppliers have led to flight delays and, in some cases, cancellations,” the statement said.
“These can have side effects not only for our customers, but can also affect the resources and operations of our employees. For example, if an aircraft stays in the door longer than expected or a flight is seen forced to cancel suddenly, this can affect the schedules of the crew and ground staff serving the aircraft, interrupting subsequent flights.
“These issues are certainly a challenge for our employees, but they are very professional and work very hard and we are now successfully moving more than 100,000 customers a day.
“That said, our global daily flight completion, and Air Canada has approximately 1,000 flights a day, is still very high.”
With regard to COVID-related travel restrictions and warrants, Ottawa reviews the situation on a monthly basis.
Any possible revision of the current policies would not come into play until early July.
Archived by CTV News Toronto and The Canadian Press