The head of Toronto Pearson airport says the facility is making “measurable improvements” in flight delays, cancellations, baggage delivery, and wait times as it continues to battle a “perfect storm” faced by the aviation system in the aftermath of COVID-19.
On Friday, Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) president and CEO Deborah Flint issued an update to stakeholders and media on the situation at the airport, praising collaboration with partners that she says has helped improve operations, while at the same time acknowledging the difficulties this summer that have caused flight delays (up to 50% on some days), lost luggage, and customs chaos for passengers.
“But the industry is rebounding, and the metrics we are sharing today show how working with our partners is yielding results,” she stated.
Flint said the GTAA is focussing on two key operational areas: passenger experience and digital tools.
Passenger experience
Responsibility for the passenger journey is shared, says the GTAA, which notes it has collaborated with airlines, government, and other partners on technological advancements, hiring, and passenger education. Measures include voluntary schedule reductions.
As a result, Toronto Pearson is now seeing improvements across several key performance metrics, claims the authority, which it expects to continue or accelerate into the fall:
Security screening – Transport Canada reported late Friday that 86 percent of passengers at Pearson were screened within 15 minutes by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority in the first three days of August, the same average percentage as passengers at airports across the country and a four-percentage point increase over the rolling average for the previous four weeks.
International arrivals ¬– At times, the airport is forced to hold passengers on their plane to make room in the customs hall. This happened 19 times from July 25 to 29, an improvement from a four-week rolling average of 60 plane holds per week.
New kiosks ¬– The GTAA and CBSA added 10 new eGates and 30 more primary inspection kiosks, at the airport over the last week of July.
Baggage delivery – Baggage delivery is managed by the airlines, but Toronto Pearson has made it an ongoing focus for collaborative improvement. For domestic travel, the average wait time for bags to arrive at the carousel is now 24 minutes, a three-minute improvement over the four-week average. The same metric also improved by three minutes for international bags, and by four minutes for transborder bags.
Airline on-time performance – Across the airport, 44% of all flights were on time, versus a 35% average for the four previous weeks. “This is not a number that I would normally tout at all,” said, Flint, “but given where we have been for the last four weeks and even before that, improving from 35% is substantial.”
Digital tools
In a bid to put power back in passengers’ hands and help them be active enablers of a smoother experience, the GTAA is providing more tools to give insight into what to expect, including online interactive infographics; a peak times dashboard with information on how busy each terminal is based on historical information from the past two weeks; and an at-a-glance resource that will be updated weekly.
In summary, Flint said, “We are indeed far from the finish line, but the actions of the GTAA, the federal government, the agencies, the airlines and many other partners working concertedly together are indeed having a positive impact.”