After delay-plagued holiday Monday at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), officials at the facility are telling travellers to give themselves extra time if flying this summer.
Reg Krake, YVR customer care director, said the summer is the facility’s busiest season, with up to 90,000 passengers moving through the airport on any given day.
“It’s a very busy time and we have been planning for that kind of volume,” Krake said.
“But you can expect there will be times of day when, let’s say, lots of aircraft come in off-schedule, and we have 10 wide-bodies arrive within an hour. That can be up to 4,000 people arriving at the customs hall.”
Krake said domestic travellers should be at YVR 90 minutes before a flight.
For trips to the U.S. it’s two hours. And for international flights, Krake said travellers should aim to arrive three hours before boarding.
On Monday, travellers took to social media to share images of travel chaos. One passenger told Global News that lineups for customs were backed up onto a second level of the airport.