The Government of Canada and the airline industry continue their efforts to reduce congestion at Canadian airports

Jul 8, 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 progress made by the Government of Canada and industry partners to reduce waiting times and congestion at Canadian airports.

Meetings that took place this week

• On Monday, July 4, Minister Alghabra met with the CEO of Air Canada. They discussed current and planned actions the industry is taking to rapidly attract more employees and strengthen core operations to better respond to the challenges of rapidly increasing demands.
• On Thursday, July 7, Minister Alghabra was accompanied by the Executive Director of Air Canada on a tour of the company’s Systems Operations Control Center.
• Later that day, the Minister, accompanied by WestJet’s CEO and staff, visited the WestJet hub at Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 3.
  • Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, these facilities function as the nerve center of an airline’s operations by coordinating activities such as crew and flight scheduling and management of loading operations.
• Transport Canada continues to meet regularly with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), airports and airlines in conjunction with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and NAV CANADA to find out solutions to address the bottlenecks that affect travel.

Taken actions

The Government of Canada and airline industry partners continue to make significant efforts to add resources and streamline processes to alleviate congestion and help travelers stay on the move, including:

CATSA Staff:

• Since April, nearly 1,200 CATSA screening officers have been hired across Canada. With this, the number of screening officers at Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport now exceeds 100 percent of projected requirements for this summer based on projected traffic.

New working group:

• Prime Minister Trudeau announced on June 25, 2022, the creation of a new task force to improve the processing of passports and immigration applications, as well as to monitor the situation at Canadian airports.

CBSA:

• CBSA is maximizing officer availability and there are now more student border services officers working.
• The Greater Toronto Airports Authority is working with the CBSA to make additional kiosks and eGates available in the customs areas of Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Suspension of mandatory random tests at airports:

• Mandatory random COVID-19 testing will remain temporarily suspended at all airports, for travelers who qualify as fully vaccinated, until mid-July, when random testing will return and testing will be completed outside of airports.

New resource for passengers:

• The Canadian Transportation Agency has developed a new information resource to help passengers experiencing flight cancellations, delays, or lost luggage issues during their trip.

ArriveCAN compliance:

• On June 27, Transport Canada updated its Provisional Order Respecting Certain Requirements for Civil Aviation Due to COVID-19 to allow the department to impose additional obligations on airlines that have repeated instances of the same flight occurring with high levels of ArriveCAN noncompliance. These additional obligations, including the need to report potential non-compliances soon after takeoff, will support the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) continued enforcement efforts on non-compliant travelers, particularly those who refuse to comply.

ArriveCAN enhancements:

• The Government of Canada continues to make improvements to ArriveCAN to make it faster and with additional features for travelers to use.
  • Travelers arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport or Vancouver International Airport can save time by using the optional Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Declaration feature on ArriveCAN to submit their immigration and customs declaration prior to arrival. This feature will be expanded to other airports in the future, including Montreal-Trudeau International Airport this summer.
    • Early usage data shows it’s 30 percent faster at the kiosk when travelers use ArriveCAN to file in advance instead of paper, shaving approximately 40 seconds from a 2-minute transaction. With the thousands of travelers passing through Toronto Pearson International Airport using the CBSA Advance Declaration option on ArriveCAN, this has the potential to save hours of processing time each day.
  • Frequent travelers are also encouraged to take advantage of the “saved traveler” feature on ArriveCAN. It allows a user to save travel documents and proof of vaccination information for reuse on future trips.
  • Beginning June 28, travelers receive a digital brochure explaining their entry and post-border requirements based on their ArriveCAN shipment for quick and easy access to the latest information on travel and health measures .

Progress

The actions we have taken since the beginning of May have produced some gains:

• During the week of June 27 to July 3, Canada’s airports continued to see about 80 percent of CATSA-screened passengers within 15 minutes, despite higher passenger numbers.
• Toronto Pearson International Airport, Calgary International Airport, and Vancouver International Airport maintained the gains made since early May, with 79%, 90%, and 85% of passengers screened within 15 minutes, respectively.
• At Montreal Trudeau International Airport, about 70 percent of passengers were screened within 15 minutes. The proportion of passengers waiting 30 minutes or more remains very low, below two percent.

We are making progress, but challenges remain. A significant number of travelers continue to face travel delays, flight cancellations and problems with airport check-in and baggage services. We continue to take action with airline industry partners to reduce delays in the travel system and update Canadians on our progress.