Passengers preparing to run the gauntlet of Canadian air travel face a key obstacle on top of flight delays and cancellations: late luggage. In recent weeks, airlines have furnished the country’s biggest airport terminals with row upon row of delayed bags, causing headaches for thousands of customers.

For travellers flying with Air Canada on Monday, the odds were their flight was delayed, with 63 percent of the carrier’s trips landing late – the most of any large airline across the globe – according to tracking service FlightAware.

Some 52 percent of all flights out of Toronto’s Pearson airport were delayed, more than any other airport in the Western Hemisphere, and No. 3 worldwide after Sydney and Frankfurt.

Delays mark a particularly sticky problem for luggage flow, with a shortage of baggage handlers to shuttle suitcases from late arrivals to connecting planes while also grappling with last-minute gate changes.

Airlines contract out suitcase delivery to courier companies who deliver luggage to passengers, costing carriers more amid a rise in fuel surcharges by shippers.

One consumer rights advocate recommends passengers buy whatever clothes and items they need as a result of the delayed bags, keep the receipts and file a claim with airline soon after, rather than waiting to get through to the airline to confirm purchases will be reimbursed. If the claims are rejected, small claims court is the next step, he said.

Airlines and government agencies have been scrambling do deal with an overwhelming travel resurgence in recent months.

Air Canada has hired more than 2,000 workers at airports and more than 750 in customer service centres this year for a payroll surpassing 32,000. That’s 93 percent of 2019 levels, even as its flight numbers fall below 80 percent of pre-pandemic figures after the carrier last week announced cuts of 15 percent to its summer schedule – nearly 10,000 flights in July and August – affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Canada’s airport security and customs agencies have also been on a hiring spree, with more than 1,000 new security screeners in place since April – though not all have clearance to work the scanners – and 700-plus student border officers stationed at checkpoints over the summer, according to the federal government.

Despite the increased staffing, Gloria Schwartz of Ottawa said she was unable to get through to Air Canada customer service to retrieve her son’s lost luggage. She instead eventually received a call from the airport’s lost and found.

“’If you want your bag today, you’d better come get it, because if you want us to deliver it to the house it’ll probably take three, four more days,’” Schwartz said, recalling the phone conversation.

“There were literally hundreds and hundreds of pieces of luggage and infants’ car seats and all kinds of things piled up without any supervision or security. So anyone could walk in and steal bags.

“It’s very upsetting for people,” she added. “It really screws people around.”