The Government of Canada and industry partners continue to make progress in reducing traveler waiting times at Canadian airports.

Aug 18, 2022 Ottawa Transportation Canada

The Minister of Transport, the Honorable Omar Alghabra, the Minister of Health, the Honorable Jean-Yves Duclos, the Minister of Public Safety, the Honorable Marco Mendicino, and the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, the Honorable Randy Boissonnault, issued this update today. on the continued action and progress made by the Government of Canada and industry partners to reduce traveler wait times and delays at Canadian airports.

Government and industry actions

The Government of Canada and airline industry partners continue to take steps to ease airport congestion and help travelers keep moving, including:

Continued action to promote the rights of travelers

In Canada, airlines must follow the requirements of Air Passenger Protection Regulationoutlining compensation requirements for passengers for delayed or canceled flights due to incidents under an airline’s control, including crew shortages. new regulations which will take effect on September 8, 2022, will also ensure that passengers are compensated for flight incidents that occur outside of an airline’s control, such as major weather events or a pandemic. The Government of Canada strongly encourages Canadians to be aware of their rights when traveling by air under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations.

The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) is the independent, quasi-judicial regulator of Canada’s national transportation system with the powers of a court to enforce the rules and regulations under which airlines operate.

To ensure that the CTA has the resources it needs to enforce the rules, the Government of Canada has provided an additional $11 million to the Agency through Budget 2022. This additional funding will help them address passenger disputes in a timely manner. more timely.

Collaborate with partners to find solutions

• Over the last few weeks, Minister Alghabra has met with senior managers from numerous airports and airlines of all sizes across the country to ensure ongoing collaboration and ongoing action to help reduce delays for travellers. Similar meetings will continue to be scheduled in the coming weeks.
• Transport Canada continues to meet regularly with airports and airlines in conjunction with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and NAV CANADA to find out solutions and address congestion problems. affecting travel.

Increase staffing for security checks and customs procedures

• Since April, more than 1,700 CATSA screening officers have been hired across Canada.
• Efforts continue to increase the staffing levels of control officers at all airports, including Montreal-Trudeau International Airport and Calgary International Airport.

Streamlining of customs procedures at Toronto Pearson International Airport

• To further ease entry and speed traveler processing, there are now 12 eGates, four dedicated NEXUS eGates and 30 new Primary Inspection Kiosks (PIKs) at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
• There has been a significant decrease in the number of aircraft holds at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Improving ArriveCAN

The Government of Canada continues to make improvements to ArriveCAN to make it faster and easier for travelers to use.

• More than 1.4 million travelers successfully used the ArriveCAN app last week.
• Travelers arriving at Toronto Pearson, Vancouver or Montréal-Trudeau International Airports can save time by using the optional Advance CBSA Declaration feature in ArriveCAN to submit their immigration and customs declaration prior to arrival.
• Early usage data indicates that using the optional CBSA Advance Declaration reduces the amount of time a traveler spends at a kiosk by approximately one-third. In the week ending August 14, the CBSA advance declaration was filed by 33.9 percent of passengers arriving at these three airports.
• In the coming months, the optional feature will also be available to travelers arriving at Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Billy Bishop Toronto City, Ottawa, Québec City and Halifax international airports.

latest data

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flight completions

• For the week of August 8-14, 2022, 98% of scheduled flights to Canada’s top four airports were completed (i.e. not cancelled), an improvement from 95% in the first week of July .
• This is almost the same as in 2019, where for the week of August 12-18, 99 percent of the planned flights for the four main airports were completed.

performance on time

• From August 8 to 14, 2022, more than 86 percent of flights from the four major airports departed on time or within one hour of their scheduled departure.
• This is a significant improvement from less than 75 percent during the first week of July and is almost equal to pre-pandemic levels in August 2019, where 92% of flights arrived on time or within an hour of arrival. scheduled departure.

Aircraft retention at Toronto Pearson International Airport

• The number of aircraft held on the tarmac at Toronto Pearson International Airport has dropped dramatically since May.
  • During the week of August 8-14, 2022, only 2%, or 42 aircraft, remained on the tarmac, compared to a peak of 373 for the week of May 23-29, 2022.

Waiting times for passenger security control

• From August 8 to 14, 2022, 87% of passengers at the four largest airports were screened within 15 minutes by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), an improvement from 79% during the first week of July .
  • Toronto Pearson International Airport: 87% from August 8 to 14, 2022 (95% in 2019)
  • At Vancouver International Airport, wait times were 85% from August 8-14, 2022, the same as pre-pandemic data, which was also 85%.
  • Montreal-Trudeau International Airport: 90% from August 8 to 14, 2022 (97% in 2019)
  • At Calgary International Airport, wait times were 89% from August 8-14, 2022, which is higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, where it was 87%.