Int’l flight delays at Pearson jumped by 275 times last month compared with 2019

Did you or your client sit and wait on the tarmac in an airplane at Toronto Pearson airport for an extended period of time last month?

That seems to be happening a lot these days – and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) has the data to prove it.

The number of international flights delayed on arrival at YYZ jumped by 275 times in April compared with April 2019, according to the GTAA, which oversees Pearson’s operations.

As per a story published by the Canadian Press on Friday (May 27), the GTAA held 2,204 planes from abroad last month versus just eight during the same period in 2019.

The information comes as no surprise as travellers at Pearson, and other major Canadian airports, face longer-than-usual wait times at security checkpoints.

READ MORE: Police called to YYZ to deal with “angry mob of people from all over the world”

Last year, on-arrival holding on tarmacs was introduced to stagger the offloading of passengers as a way of easing crowd levels in YYZ’s terminals.

That tedious process has continued, albeit at a time when aviation traffic in Canada sees a sharp uptick due to renewed consumer confidence thanks to eased border measures.

Some passengers have reported waiting for hours to get to their gate, while others have missed connecting flights due to prolonged holding times on board an arriving aircraft.

READ MORE: IATA offers solutions to reduce “unacceptable wait times” at Canadian airports

The pent-up demand for travel is also boiling over, putting strain on airport operations, which, officials say, are suffering from a staffing shortage following two years of intense layoffs and workplace restructuring.  

The GTAA says that in the second week of May, some 18,000 arriving international passengers at Pearson were held on board longer than 30 minutes, and 3,000 longer than 75 minutes.

The GTAA, earlier this month, called on the Government of Canada to intervene, calling on the feds to step up with investments and help improve the situation.

Among the things the GTAA is asking for is the elimination of inbound public health requirements at airports, as well as the end of random COVID-19 testing upon arrival.

The authority is also calling on Ottawa to invest in staffing and technology and to engage with the U.S. government to ensure staffing and capacity at pre-clearance sites can return to pre-pandemic levels.

Over the past four weeks, the travel plans of “around 100,000 passengers per week” have been disrupted, noted the International Air Transport Association (IATA) this week, which has also called on the Canadian government to scrap COVID restrictions at airports. 

READ MORE: Out-of-practice travellers, uneven flight volumes causing airport delays, says Alghabra. Not staffing levels

The situation unfolds as Canadian air travel intensifies.

According to new data from Canada Border Services Agency, the total number of commercial air travellers arriving in Canada between the week of April 25 and May 1 sits at 459,412, up from 26,866 during the same week last year and 12,610 in 2020.

That’s 17 times higher compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) is currently advising passengers to arrive at the airport “well in advance of their flights” – two hours for domestic and three hours for U.S. and international destinations.

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