Saskatoon airport keen to speed up security queues

The Saskatoon Airport Authority’s chief executive says he wants the federal Crown corporation responsible for security screening to improve frustrating and “unacceptable” waiting times during peak hours.

The airport does not want passengers to spend more than 15 minutes lined up to pass through security, but has been getting complaints about wait times “in excess of 60 minutes,” Stephen Maybury said.

“If you’re delayed in line, then you’re either missing your flight or the flight’s delayed, so it’s incredibly important to us and … some of these numbers that we’ve seen are all-time highs,” he said.

Passenger and baggage screening at 89 airports across the country is the responsibility of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), which contracts the security work to four different firms.

According to the Crown corporation’s latest annual report, it received $673.2 million in government funding last year, up 10 per cent from 2016, which it used to screen 61.8 million passengers.

The Saskatoon Airport Authority, which operates the John G. Diefenbaker International Airport, reported its second-busiest year on record in 2017, when 1.46 million passengers passed through its doors.

Maybury said the problem of long wait times early in the morning and late in the afternoon is not one the Airport Authority can solve, since it has “tons of capacity” in its new security screening areas.

“The issue of CATSA … deploying resources is their call,” Maybury said, adding that while the Airport Authority is not mandated to assist the federal agency, it provides as much information and support as possible. CATSA are doing (a review of the issues) currently and have been doing that this week. We’re hopeful and quite confident they ’ll have a resolve in place shortly, ( but) what that looks like is with them.”

A representative of Garda-World Aviation Services, which is contracted by CATSA to provide security screening in Saskatoon, referred a request for comment to the federal Crown corporation.

CATSA’s priority is to offer the highest levels of security to the travelling public,” agency spokeswoman Suzanne Perseo said in an email, adding CATSA will be working with the airport authority to ensure staffing aligns with flight schedules.