(Toronto) Nearly half a million passengers were held up last month after arriving on international flights at Toronto’s Lester-B.-Pearson airport.
Posted at 10:45 a.m.
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority reports that in May, 490,810 travellers, or about half of all arrivals from overseas, experienced delays. These people were held inside their planes, on the tarmac, or faced delays due to overflows at customs areas.
Compared to May 2019, the number of flights from outside Canada that were delayed last month at Pearson rose from four to 2,700.
Airport authorities are struggling with obstacles such as staff shortages and health measures related to COVID-19 which are causing significant delays.
The Government of Canada has committed to hiring hundreds of additional security screening officers, and Transport Canada has created a committee of government agencies and industry stakeholders to eliminate bottlenecks at checkpoints. security check.