With the holiday travel season around the corner, Canada’s busiest airport is looking to redeem itself from a reputation of cancellations and delays this past summer.
Toronto Pearson International Airport released its travel tips for passengers Tuesday.
The airport said the week leading up to Christmas is expected to be the busiest time to travel as well as the days around Jan. 9, when many children return to school.
In preparation for the spike, the airport has introduced an online security reservation system, YYZ Express, that lets customers on select flights reserve their security screening spot in advance.
In September, the airport launched an online dashboard so that passengers can receive live wait times on security screening, customs, airline counters and baggage carousels.
The airport peak times dashboard is another function Pearson recommends customers use that shows the busiest time of day for each terminal so that passengers can plan accordingly.
As well, passengers who complete an advanced declaration form will be granted access to an express customs lane, in hopes of easing wait times further.
The airport said this holiday season will be particularly busy as passenger traffic has steadily increased since the summer, but the number of travellers is still expected to sit below pre-pandemic levels.
The airport has “much improved” since the summer and the new modernization tools will help passengers prepare for holiday travel, said Deborah Flint, chief executive officer of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, in a news release.
This past summer, many passengers faced lengthy delays and flight cancellations at the airport, which according to tracking service FlightAware had the world’s worst record on delayed flights.