Summer holidays are approaching and the desire to travel abroad sometimes becomes irresistible. Traveling on a whim like before the pandemic has become possible again, but even if Ottawa suspended certain sanitary measures again this week, organizing a last-minute trip can still feel like an obstacle course. Findings and advice to prepare for your departure… and your return.
Posted at 7:15 p.m.
Everybody wants to leave
“Everyone decided to travel at the same time, observes Manon Langelier, regional vacation director at the Laurier Du Vallon agency. To the point where, for the moment, we unfortunately cannot serve all customers. This is also the case with the CAA-Quebec agency, which asks travelers to make an appointment to speak to an agent. “We lost a lot of people during the pandemic,” says Nicolas Ryan, director of public affairs at CAA-Quebec. We have a hundred positions open. “It is possible to travel at the last minute, there are availabilities”, nevertheless wishes to clarify Manon Langelier. But maybe not with the advice of a specialist…
A chaotic revival
These tips are very useful right now, however, as the strong recovery, coupled with a labor shortage, has caused countless turbulences in the world of travel. Endless queues to obtain a passport or go through security and customs, flights canceled by the hundreds: the miseries of travelers made a lot of noise this spring. “We failed miserably in preparing for the recovery,” says Mehran Ebrahimi, director of the International Observatory of Aeronautics and Civil Aviation at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), who criticizes Ottawa for have done too little to help the country’s airports maintain an employment relationship with their workers. The absence of a single baggage handler can delay a plane’s takeoff and lead to a whole series of disruptions, recalls Mr. Ebrahimi.
Improvements, but…
“The federal government is waiting for people to cry foul before taking action,” continues the man who teaches at ESG UQAM. Faced with discontent, Ottawa has just announced the suspension, as of June 20, of compulsory vaccination for travelers, after having done the same thing with random testing for COVID-19 in airports. Already, the lines seemed shorter at the beginning of the week at Montreal-Trudeau. But the wait for obtaining a passport remains long. On Monday, Family Minister Karina Gould was unable to say when things would be back to normal. The federal government now recommends that travelers submit a passport application between 45 and 50 days before departure.
A global crisis
Canada is not alone in experiencing airport misfires. More than 1,000 passengers caught in lines have missed their flights at Dublin Airport in a week, CNN reported earlier this month. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has asked for military help to restore the situation at UK airports, where long queues, lost luggage and canceled flights are wreaking havoc. In the United States, the labor shortage also caused the cancellation of nearly 2,800 flights during the long Memorial Day weekend at the end of May.
How to do it ?
In this context, preparing for a trip is more important than ever, reminds Nicolas Ryan, of CAA-Quebec. Passport, insurance, entry conditions for the countries visited: the list is growing quickly. And constantly changing. To keep up to date, CAA-Quebec relies on the Sherpa service, offered on its website. The tool, updated every “15 or 20 minutes”, specifies all the documents, forms and tests required for a given destination. “It’s valuable to be able to consult it right up to the start,” says Nicolas Ryan. In addition, if you buy your plane tickets yourself, specifies Manon Langelier, of Laurier Du Vallon, plan for longer stopovers. “With 1 hour 30 minutes between two flights in Toronto, for example, you will miss your connection,” she says.
Plan your return
Regardless of the irritants, people really want to leave, notes Nicolas Ryan. The wait on the way out, in the excitement of leaving, goes pretty well, but the one on the way back, “when people are just eager to be home”, is much more painful, according to him. However, if Ottawa has thrown ballast on certain measures, the use of the application ArriveCAN is maintained for all travelers entering the country. Mehran Ebrahimi is hard to explain: “It triples the time spent at customs for each passenger! Despite the hiring announced by Ottawa, the training of new employees will be long and the labor shortage has not said its last word, believes the professor. “We will pay throughout the holidays,” he observes. Any advice for a return without too much of a wait at customs? It is better to plan your return to Montréal-Trudeau outside of peak periods for international arrivals, which are Thursday to Sunday, from 4 p.m. to midnight, recalls Aéroports de Montréal.
With The Canadian Press
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- 1.3 million
- Between 1er April 2021 and March 31, 2022, Service Canada issued 1.3 million passports. During the same period the previous year, just 363,000 passports had been issued.
source: The Canadian Press
- 3 a.m.
- Aéroports de Montréal asks travelers to arrive three hours before departure, regardless of whether it is an international flight, to the United States or domestic. This is especially true in the morning for flights to the United States, and between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., Thursday through Sunday, for international flights.
source: Montreal Airports