Shortage of employees, laborious sanitary measures, strong comeback of tourism… Quebecers who will be traveling this summer will have to be patient at airports to get from point A to point B.
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“Toronto (currently 300, and about 600 are needed), and about a third in Montreal (currently 200, while at least 260 are needed), are short of staff in passenger operations. “, indicated to the Log Pierre St-Jacques, communications officer for the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU).
For years, his union has been asking the government to have more travel agents. “It is certain that the use of automated technology such as primary inspection terminals and the ArriveCan application will make things worse,” he illustrates.
Very variable durations
In recent days, Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) has pointed out to the Log that “waiting times vary according to peak periods”.
“We have labor issues, so we can’t escape them. There is a lack of resources everywhere. For the moment, we are doing quite well, but we are not immune to waiting times,” also explained Anne-Sophie Hamel, director of corporate affairs at ADM in an interview with Mario Dumont.
More than ever, travelers are also invited to carefully plan their travel time to the airport due to road congestion and works.
Returning home and going through customs can also be more complicated due to long waits, lack of staff and sanitary measures.
“There are still COVID measures in Canada, so border services officers must validate that passengers have entered their COVID information correctly in the ARRIVE CAN app,” added Ms.me Hamel.
While the airport has resumed at 70% of its pre-pandemic ridership, this recovery is being slowed by staff shortages and COVID-19 measures.
–With QMI Agency and Julien McEvoy