CBSA resolves passport kiosk outage after disruption at Toronto, Montreal airports

This story was updated at 11:10 p.m. EST on Friday, September 11, 2026

A widespread outage affecting passport inspection kiosks at Canadian airports caused lengthy arrival delays Friday (Sept. 11), including at Toronto Pearson (YYZ) and Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL), before the issue was resolved later that evening.

At 9:37 p.m. EST, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed that its systems were back online.

“The outage has been resolved. We thank travellers for their cooperation and apologize for any inconvenience experienced,” CBSA wrote on X.

The disruption began earlier Friday afternoon.

“There is currently an outage of the CBSA Primary Inspections Kiosks at airports. We are working with partners on fixing the issue,” CBSA wrote on X at 3:50 p.m. EST. “We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.”

More than three hours later, the problem was still causing disruptions. 

“We are processing travellers manually while our systems are impacted. To reduce wait times, please have your documents ready,” CBSA wrote at 7:16 p.m.

CBSA did not specify which airports were affected, but social media reports pointed to significant delays at Toronto Pearson.

The airport took to its own social media at around 7:30 p.m., saying the outage involving primary inspection kiosks was impacting Terminals 1 and 3.

“Passengers may experience longer than normal wait times at customs as a result,” the airport wrote on its Facebook page.

Journalist Travis Dhanraj shared a photo on X showing the scene at Canada Customs at Pearson, where a packed room of travellers could be seen snaking through seemingly endless processing lines.

The outage also appeared to create lengthy lineups at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. 

One X user, Michael Bociurkiw (@WorldAffairsPro), called the situation at international arrivals “complete chaos,” reporting that the wait to clear immigration had stretched beyond two hours, with lines spanning two floors as kiosks remained offline.

Montreal’s airport had not publicly confirmed the outage on its social media channels as of Friday evening.

The disruptions affected primary inspection kiosks, also referred to as e-gates, which are used to verify travellers' identities and submit customs declarations. 

When the system goes offline, it can result in lengthy delays for travellers arriving in Canada.

Firsthand experience

It’s also something PAX has experienced firsthand (and it's an ordeal we wouldn’t wish on any traveller).

Last September, we were among hundreds – if not thousands – of travellers affected by a kiosk outage at YYZ.

During outages, travellers can also be held on arriving aircraft until CBSA authorizes disembarkation for crowd-control purposes.

After landing at Toronto Pearson on an Air Canada flight from Athens last year, we were told we would need to wait at least 45 minutes before deplaning.

That wait inside the aircraft stretched to almost two hours. Once we were finally permitted to disembark, we found ourselves in an enormous line — easily a thousand people deep — leading to customs.

During that ordeal, NEXUS members were able to fast-track, but for everyone else, the process dragged on for nearly two hours.

From the time we were held on the aircraft to finally clearing the processing line, exiting Toronto Pearson took us nearly four hours — and for others, the wait was reportedly even longer.

Last year, CBSA investigated the outages and previously clarified that the system glitches did not stem from a cyberattack.

However, the outages, and the delays that ensue, are “not acceptable,” the head of Canada’s border agency told media last year.

“We do have legacy systems. We do have contingency plans. But it’s not acceptable that they go down,” CBSA President Erin O’Gorman said, as reported by CBC News in October 2025.

Ten Canadian airports currently use e-gates, which were first unveiled in 2017 to streamline the arrivals process.

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