Statement - The Government of Canada and air industry continue efforts to reduce congestion at Canadian airports

OTTAWA, ON, July 8, 2022 /CNW/ - The Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, the Minister of Health, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, the Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Marco Mendicino, and the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, issued this update today on progress being made by the Government of Canada and industry partners to reduce wait times and congestion at Canadian airports.

Meetings that took place this week

• On Monday, July 4, Minister Alghabra met with the CEO of Air Canada. They discussed current and planned actions being taken by industry to quickly bring on more employees and to bolster core operations to better respond to the challenges of rapidly increasing demands.
• On Thursday, July 7, Minister Alghabra was joined by the CEO of Air Canada for a tour of the company's Systems Operation Control Centre.
• Later that day, the Minister, accompanied by the CEO and staff of WestJet, visited WestJet's operation centre at Terminal 3 at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
• These facilities, which operate 24/7, 365 days per year, function as the nerve-centre for an airline's operations by coordinating activities such as crew and flight scheduling and cargo operations management.
• Transport Canada continues to meet regularly with Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), airports, and airlines alongside the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and NAV CANADA to find solutions to address bottlenecks affecting travel.

Actions taken

The Government of Canada and air industry partners continue to make significant efforts to add resources and streamline processes to ease congestion and help keep travellers moving, including:

CATSA staff:

• Since April, close to 1,200 CATSA screening officers have been hired across Canada. With this, the number of screening officers at Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport is now over 100 percent of the targeted requirements for this summer based on projected traffic.

New task force:

• Prime Minister Trudeau announced on June 25, 2022, the creation of a new task force to improve the processing of passports and immigration applications, as well as to monitor the situation at Canadian airports.

CBSA:

• CBSA is maximizing officer availability and additional Student Border Services Officers are now at work.
• The Greater Toronto Airports Authority is working with CBSA to make available additional kiosks and eGates at Toronto Pearson International Airport customs hall areas.

Suspension of mandatory random testing at airports:

• Mandatory random COVID-19 testing will remain temporarily suspended at all airports, for travellers who qualify as fully vaccinated, until mid-July, when the random testing will return, and tests will be completed outside of the airports.

New resource for passengers:

• The Canadian Transportation Agency has developed a new information resource to help passengers who are experiencing flight cancellations, delays or lost luggage issues during their travel.

ArriveCAN compliance:

• On June 27, Transport Canada updated its Interim Order Respecting Certain Requirements for Civil Aviation Due to COVID-19 to enable the department to impose additional obligations on airlines that have repeated cases of the same flight occurring with high levels of ArriveCAN non-compliance. These additional obligations, including the need to report potential non-compliances shortly after take-off, will support the Public Health Agency of Canada's (PHAC) continuing enforcement efforts on non-compliant travellers, particularly those who refuse to come into compliance.

ArriveCAN improvements:

• The Government of Canada continues to make improvements to ArriveCAN so it is faster and with additional features for travellers to use.
• Travellers arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport or Vancouver International Airport can save time by using the Advance Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Declaration optional feature in ArriveCAN to submit their customs and immigration declaration in advance of arrival. This feature will be expanded to other airports in the future, including Montréal-Trudeau International Airport this summer.
• Early usage data shows that it is 30 percent faster at the kiosk when travellers use ArriveCAN to declare in advance instead of paper – shaving approximately 40 seconds off a 2-minute transaction. With the thousands of travellers who go through Toronto Pearson International Airport and use the Advance CBSA Declaration option in ArriveCAN, this has the potential of saving hours of processing time each day. 
• Frequent travellers are also encouraged to take advantage of the "saved traveller" feature in ArriveCAN. It allows a user to save travel documents and proof of vaccination information to reuse on future trips.
• As of June 28, travellers receive a digital handout explaining their entry and post-border requirements based on their ArriveCAN submission so they have easy and quick access to the latest health and travel measures information. 

Progress

The actions we've taken since the beginning of May have yielded some gains:

• During the week of June 27 to July 3, Canada's airports continued to see about 80 percent of passengers screened by CATSA within 15 minutes, despite higher passenger numbers.
• Toronto Pearson International Airport, Calgary International Airport and Vancouver International Airport maintained the gains made since the beginning of May, with 79 percent, 90 percent and 85 percent of passengers screened within 15 minutes, respectively.
• At Montreal Trudeau International Airport, about 70 percent of passengers were screened within 15 minutes. The proportion of passengers waiting 30 minutes or more remains very low, at below two percent.

We are making progress, but challenges remain. A significant number of travellers continue to face travel delays, flight cancellations and issues with airport check-in and baggage services. We continue to take action with air industry partners to reduce the delays in the travel system and update Canadians on our progress.

Transport Canada is online at www.tc.gc.ca. Subscribe to e-news or stay connected through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to keep up to date on the latest from Transport Canada.

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SOURCE Transport Canada

Laurel Lennox, Press Secretary, Office of the Honourable Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport, Ottawa, [email protected]; Media Relations, Transport Canada, Ottawa, [email protected], 613-993-0055