COVID-19 rules cause delays at Canadian airports amid Omicron holiday travel
Global News
Travellers arriving at Canadian airports can expect long wait times this holiday season as officials tighten travel rules to limit the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
International travellers may find themselves waiting at Canadian airports longer than they normally would during the holidays as the Omicron variant spreads worldwide.
The wait won’t only be thanks to increased traffic, but to added COVID-19 screening measures like on-arrival testing, which is designed to slow the spread of the new variant.
“The travel experience has changed since pre-pandemic times, and Toronto Pearson has been advising passengers for some time that they may experience longer wait times on arrival due to additional health checks,” a spokesperson for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), which oversees Canada’s largest airport, told Global News in an email.
“Arrival wait times vary significantly depending on the time of day but at this time I can tell you that currently we’re within the two-three hour window experienced during very high peak times.”
In the past few weeks, Canadian travellers have seen the federal government impose several travel restrictions ahead of the holiday season, historically one of the busiest times of the year at airports.
Late last month, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced all travellers, except those from the U.S., who are entering the country by air were going to face on-arrival testing at an airport.
Before, only randomly selected passengers from international flights were tested at airports by private companies contracted by the government.
The on-arrival test, which is paid for by the federal government, is in addition to the pre-departure test before arriving in Canada, which was reintroduced on Tuesday for all travellers entering the country regardless of trip length.
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