A “national computer outage” of check-in kiosks caused a slowdown at border checkpoints across the country, including at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, on Sunday.
The outage finally resolved shortly after 6 p.m., operator Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) reported.
The wait was already around 90 minutes to be able to go through customs, and this was during the peak period for European arrivals, ADM then reported.
“All our teams are in place to assist travelers and inform them, but we cannot give an estimate of when this will subside,” said ADM spokesperson Anne Marcotte.
However, ADM indicated about an hour later that waiting times had finally returned to normal.
The passenger clearance operation must absolutely go through these computer terminals which have broken down. This would concern all airports in the country, according to ADM.
The Canada Border Services Agency confirmed in the evening that it had encountered “intermittent connectivity issues with kiosks and electronic gates” at airports across the country.
“We have worked with Shared Services Canada to restore service as quickly as possible and we continue to assess and investigate the situation. […] We apologize for any inconvenience and thank all travelers and partners for their patience,” added a spokesperson for the organization, Rebecca Purdy.