Airports must ‘adjust’ to shorten waits

Rusty travellers and uneven flight volumes slowing airport security lines, transport minister says

MONTREAL Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says Canada’s airport security agency is increasing its staffing, but that a lack of workers is not the main culprit for the unacceptable delays passengers are facing this spring.

Multiple airports are reporting extremely long lines at airport security and border screening checkpoints while passengers say they are being forced to wait for hours — and sometimes missing their flights.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority said last week that staffing challenges at the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) were contributing to long lines at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

But Alghabra said Wednesday the security agency’s staffing is at 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels while flight volumes are still below 70 per cent, so that can’t be the main problem.

Other industry-watchers say it’s not about flight volume.

Big airlines see capacity at 70 or 75 per cent of 2019 levels, said John Gradek, head of McGill University’s aviation management program. But the number of passengers flowing through key hubs such as the Toronto and Vancouver airports is approaching pre-pandemic figures, he said.

“Air Canada and WestJet, they’re both basically operating significantly greater numbers of international flights,” many of which land at those two airports, he noted.

Domestic routes are ramping up too.

Air Canada is flying 14 flights per day between Toronto and Vancouver versus 12 per day in 2019. “And instead of having a Dreamliner with 200 seats, you’ve got a 777 with 350 seats,” Gradek said.

“There are a lot more passengers on those airplanes.”

Alghabra said out-of-practice travellers are causing delays at security checkpoints as Canadians shift back into travel mode after spending most of the last two years grounded by COVID-19.

“Taking out the laptops, taking out the fluids — all that adds 10 seconds here, 15 seconds there,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Changing flight schedules have also resulted in large volumes of flights leaving and arriving at the same time, causing big bottlenecks at certain times of day, Alghabra said.

“They need to adjust for that ... It wasn’t as pronounced as it is right now, the peaks and valleys.”

More last-minute bookings by passengers could throw another wrench in the turbine.

Gradek said more staff — both at security checkpoints and among airlines, which can comb the security queues for passengers with immanent departures and hustle them to the front — would ease the choke points.

Passengers say they are being forced to wait for hours — and sometimes missing their flights.