Air travellers hope dropping random COVID-19 testing clears backlogs

Traveller chaos at Canadian airports has led to the temporary lifting of mandatory random COVID-19 tests for vaccinated travellers.

The random tests are on hold until the end of June to ease huge passenger backlogs, which are especially plaguing Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

Osama Faris returned to Ottawa from the United Kingdom and decided to bypass Toronto all together.

“I was actually supposed to fly into Toronto from the UK, but I arrived at the airport early in London so I actually asked them if they could get me on an earlier flight,” he said. “I came into Montreal because I knew if I was going into Pearson that it was going to be a disaster zone.”

Canadians have been waiting hours to get through regular travel checkpoints. Nearly half a million passengers were held up after landing at Pearson aboard international flights last month.

The federal government is vowing to ease congestion by temporarily lifting mandatory random COVID-19 testing for vaccinated passengers.

“Hopefully if they identify that as being part of the backlog, if that does take care of things,” said Jennifer Sutton, a traveller in Ottawa.

On July 1, all testing will be done off site in an effort to ease delays with luggage, security, and customs.

“Taking the testing off site creates a whole new logistical issue in that travellers are going to have to go to some other location,” said Duncan Dee, former Chief Operating Officer of Air Canada.

As travel headaches continue, at least one major airline is slashing capacity.

Air Canada plans to operate at 20 per cent less capacity this summer, compared to its pre-pandemic summer schedule.

“This is the fallout of government related delays and cancellations,” said Dee. “When airlines are faced with non stop delays for 70 straight days since April, they have no other choice but to reduce their capacity.”

The federal government has said that the Canadian Border Services Agency and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority are ramping up recruitment to return to pre-pandemic staffing levels.