(Montreal) Ottawa’s decision to suspend random COVID-19 testing at customs marks a “big step” toward restoring normal traffic through airport terminals, but further steps would be needed to completely clear the runway, said the president of the Canadian Airports Council on Monday.
Posted at 2:14 p.m.
Updated at 3:32 p.m.
Monette Pasher pointed out that wait times and delays in arrivals on the tarmac at major airports improved immediately after the measure came into force on Saturday.
“We are very encouraged by the news. This is a big step forward in solving the backlog issues,” she said in an interview Monday.
“But there is still a lot of work to do, because there are still delays, but over shorter periods. In our business, we never want to see people waiting on the tarmac. »
Ottawa announced on Friday that the federal government would suspend screening tests for randomly selected arriving international passengers, and that mandatory rapid tests imposed on unvaccinated arrivals would take place at off-airport sites beginning July 1.er July.
The Canadian Airports Council (CAC) and other industry groups are now calling for an end to mandatory vaccinations for travelers and aviation workers, saying hundreds more workers could be put to work further support travelers.
The government continues to require 14-day quarantines for unvaccinated Canadian passengers and bar entry to unvaccinated foreigners.
After laying off security staff during the pandemic, the nation’s airport security agency has hired 865 screening officers since April, Ottawa said, with more hires coming as the country’s four largest airports Canada forecast a 50% increase in the number of travelers within weeks.
As of 1er June, these hubs handled an average of 56,000 inbound passengers from overseas each day — more than half of them at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, where scenes of endless lines and frustration travelers circulated in social media posts and news stories for much of the spring. The number of travelers is expected to reach 80,000 in a few weeks, according to CAC forecasts.
“People can expect longer wait times in the summer, but we shouldn’t see anything like what we saw last month. I think we are overcoming this obstacle,” said Mr.me pasher.
The Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable welcomed Ottawa’s latest rollback, but was not so optimistic about its impact.
“At the national level, Canada’s travel rules are hurting small businesses, unfairly impacting families looking to take advantage of the summer travel season, and forcing the cancellation of conferences and events that help fuel economies. communities,” the Roundtable, made up of industry groups, said in a statement released on Friday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Friday that the U.S. government would drop COVID-19 testing as a requirement for entering the country — a measure that Canada has already removed.