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Posted May 28, 2022 at 8:09 am
One thing we do know is that since borders have opened up to travel, there has been a big struggle at Pearson Airport in Mississauga to keep up with the number of people coming and going.
At least the Canadian government has acknowledged that there is a problem and is taking steps to help passengers move faster.
Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport, and the Honorable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety, issued this statement on May 27 to offer an update on the actions the government is taking to reduce waiting times at Canadian airports:
They mentioned that these points are the specific action to be taken in response to airport delays:
- Transport Canada (TC) quickly brought together government agencies and industry, such as the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Air Transport Security Authority of Canada. Canada (CATSA), creating an exit detection committee to address the bottlenecks that occur. pre-shipment security checks and pre-clearance checkpoints and develop new approaches to address these pressure points in the travel system.
- CATSA has been working with its contractors to increase the number of checkpoints at passenger checkpoints. There are currently approximately 400 additional control officers in different phases of their training across the country who will be deployed from now until the end of June.
- With TC support, these recruits will benefit from progressing faster through a more flexible incorporation process so that they can be on the ground as quickly as possible. Airports are working to support CATSA with this initiative.
- CATSA is very close to having recruited 100% of its target number of control officers for the summer at many airports, including Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport.
- CATSA has accelerated the use of pre-certified control agents to perform non-control functions, to optimize resources, and to enable certified control agents to focus their efforts on key security functions.
- Airports, airlines and other partners contact CATSA on a daily basis to help them adjust their schedule to ensure that controls are available where and when they are needed to support busy travel times as air travel recovers. quickly.
- CATSA is currently studying best practices at airports to see where these processes can be applied to other airports for efficiency.
They also mention that while more remains to be done, these efforts are bearing fruit with declining waiting times for detection. Since the beginning of the month, the number of passengers waiting 30 minutes or more for one-way detection at our largest airports (Toronto Pearson International, Vancouver International, Montreal Trudeau International and Calgary International) has been halved. .
As for arriving passengers, the Government of Canada, including TC, PHAC and Public Safety Canada, continues to work with airlines and industry partners to reduce delays, even with planes at the gates of Pearson International Airport. of Toronto.
- CBSA and Toronto’s Pearson International Airport are taking steps to add 25 kiosks to speed up processing time. CBSA is also initiating the Summer Action Plan to ensure efficiency; increase available officer capacity; and to facilitate the return of agents from the student border services.
- PHAC is working with CBSA and its partners to streamline its operations. For example, they will eliminate the requirement for mandatory random testing in the process of international to domestic connections. Other changes are being developed to streamline public health processing.
Airports, airlines and the Government of Canada, including CATSA, PHAC, TC and CBSA, are improving communications with passengers so that passengers can better anticipate pre-shipment control and cargo processing requirements. arrival, facilitating a smoother passage in and out of airports.
There are things that travelers can do to speed up the process:
- Travelers arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport can use the CBSA Advanced Declaration on the ArriveCAN web version to file their customs and immigration return up to 72 hours before flying. in Canada. This will save travelers time when they arrive at the airport. This feature will be integrated into the ArriveCAN mobile app this summer and will also be available at other Canadian airports in the coming months.
- All travelers arriving from international destinations must fill out their information on ArriveCan. Travelers arriving in Canada without completing ArriveCAN contribute significantly to border congestion. Regardless of the vaccination status, a traveler who arrives without the ArriveCAN receipt is considered an unvaccinated traveler, ie he or she must be tested on arrival and on the 8th and quarantined for 14 days. days. Passengers who do not have an ArriveCAN receipt may also be subject to enforcement, including a $ 5,000 fine. The easiest way for travelers to accelerate their airport experience is to come prepared, including complete ArriveCAN.
- Travelers aged 16 and over can use the new eGates at Toronto Pearson International Airport to verify their identity and submit their customs and immigration declaration, which will improve traffic flow to the arrival room of the Terminal 1 and will speed up processing.
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