Pearson Airport Says To Arrive Early As Some Passengers Are Experiencing Longer Wait Times

There have been several updates to Canada's travel rules and it's apparently taking a toll on some travellers going through Toronto Pearson Airport this week.

On December 2, Alejandro Mayoral Banos shared a picture on Twitter of long, winding lines at the airport and called Pearson a “total nightmare”.

Mayoral Banos arrived at Pearson Airport at 5:35 a.m., about three hours before departure to Mexico City.

“I had already done my checkin online one night before as usual,” Mayoral Banos told Narcity via Twitter.

“However this time they decided to put all passengers of international flights in the same line (Mexico City, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Barbados, India, Cancun, etc.) to actually get to the counter or the automatic machines.”

“It took me exactly 95 min to drop any bag.”

Another Pearson passenger earlier on Thursday morning shared that the lineup for Gate 5 actually started six gates later.

A spokesperson for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority told Narcity mornings are usually busy for departures. That, and "travel today can be more complicated given health requirements both in Canada and abroad."

In response to growing concerns about the Omicron variant, the Canadian government introduced travel restrictions for Nigeria, Malawi, Egypt, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Namibia, Eswatini, and South Africa.

Among other rules, foreign nationals who have been to any of these countries within the last 14 days will not be allowed into Canada.

On top of that, all travellers (excluding those coming from the U.S.) are required to take a COVID-19 test as soon as they land - regardless of their vaccination status and will have to isolate until they get their results.

"We work collaboratively with airlines and government agencies to process travellers as quickly as possible," Tori Gass, the spokesperson, said.

"At times, passengers are experiencing longer than normal processing times. We continue to recommend passengers arrive three hours ahead of time for international flights and 90 minutes ahead of time for domestic flights."

Pearson Airport has been recommending that travellers plan ahead and arrive earlier for flights since the federal government updated its travel rules to welcome fully vaccinated flyers from across the globe.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.