Amid scenes of endless security and customs queues at large Canadian airports and peak travel season still weeks away, the federal government has paused all mandatory random COVID-19 tests at Canada’s airports for vaccinated travellers until the end of the month. After that, mandatory rapid tests for incoming travellers will happen in the community.

The new measures started on the weekend, though until next month, unvaccinated travellers are still being tested at airports.

The government previously announced current public health measures would remain in place until the end of June but has been facing mounting pressure from industry and opposition.

“The government of Canada recognizes the impact that significant wait times at some Canadian airports are having on travellers,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra and his fellow ministers said in announcing the measures on Friday.

Travel and tourism groups blame recent havoc at Canadian airports on the COVID-19 surveillance measures undertaken when passengers attempt to pass through customs.

Many of those passengers have become increasingly vocal – and public – including former Edmonton Oiler hockey player Ryan Whitney, who generated sensational headlines last week after tweeting to over 400,000 followers that Toronto’s Pearson airport is “the worst place on Earth” after he endured a long delay at Canada’s largest airport.

Whitney laid bare his exasperation after undergoing a gauntlet of lines, delays, cancellations, and re-bookings during an Air Canada stopover. He said he landed at Pearson at 3 p.m. on Sunday and didn’t take off for Boston until 1 p.m. the next day.

“I am so in shock at this place. It is the biggest disgrace known to man,” he posted in a selfie video from the gate.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) says 490,810 travellers in May, or about half of all arrivals from abroad, faced delays as they were held inside their planes on the tarmac or faced staggered off-loading to ease pressure on overflowing customs areas.

In total, some 2,700 flights arriving from outside the country were delayed at Pearson last month, versus four planes – and a few hundred passengers – in May 2019.

Hurdles ranging from airport staffing shortages to COVID-19 health measures threaten to cascade into a problem that overmatches efforts to drain clogged terminals.

Earlier last week the GTAA appealed to the government to “act immediately” on a temporary pause to random testing on arrival in airports until upgrades to the government’s ArriveCan app are made.

“The stakes have never been higher, and the world is watching,” said Deborah Flint, president and CEO of the airport authority. “This is about much more than Toronto Pearson; it’s about global perceptions of our country and the risk that Canada will lose billions of dollars from tourism and business activities if travellers decide that coming to Canada this summer simply isn’t worth the hassle.”

Despite the pause and decision to later move testing off-site at airports, the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable is continuing to urge the government to do away with the test requirement altogether and lift all remaining COVID-19 restrictions – including vaccine mandates for passengers and staff.

“Canada’s outdated rules are causing unacceptable delays at the country’s major airports, keeping international visitors away and souring Canada’s reputation on the world stage,” the roundtable said in a statement Friday evening.

The Roundtable, which is a coalition of major travel, tourism, and hospitality organizations across the company, has also called for the government to remove COVID-19-related questions from the ArriveCan app to speed lines up at the airport.

Instead, the government announced it would station extra Public Health Agency of Canada workers at airports to verify that travellers have completed the questions and offer help to those who need it.

Earlier in the day on Friday, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said the random tests act as an “early warning system” for new variants of the virus entering Canada.

“We do a randomized sample to select people coming from different areas of the world and are able to detect variants of concern,” Tam said at a public health briefing.

While cabinet is responsible for mandating COVID-19 measures, Alghabra has recently said politicians are “following the science” on the issue and receiving advice from public health experts.

At the same, Alghabra says the government is continuing to hire more screening officers (since April, 865 have been added) to address chronic staff shortages that many believe are more impactful in causing delays than the random testing regime.

At Toronto Pearson, the most affected airport in Canada, the CBSA and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority are also making available additional kiosks in customs hall areas and increasing communication with travellers through social media, signage, and multimedia screens to better prepare them for the pre-boarding screening and arrival processing requirements in order to facilitate a smoother passage in and out of airports.

However, wait times at US custom pre-clearance for outbound passengers are still the purview of the American government.

Nevertheless, Alghabra claims the Canadian administration’s efforts are “having a positive impact.”

“Current traveller wait times at major Canadian airports,” he says, “are decreasing.”