Pearson airport says it has turned a corner — with on-time performance reaching as high as 75%

At this time last summer, on-time performance was 35 per cent, but in recent weeks it has reached as high as 74.5 per cent, the GTAA said.

“I am proud of the exceptional teamwork demonstrated by the Toronto Pearson team leading up to the summer season, which has collectively strengthened the overall resilience of our ecosystem,” Deborah Flint, president and CEO of the GTAA, said during a news conference updating the public on its progress Tuesday morning.

“The tangible improvements in Toronto Pearson’s performance go beyond mere recovery but lead us toward a future airport with more choices and excellent customer experiences,” Flint said.

Security wait times have also lessened. The most recent data from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) for the week of July 3 to 9 indicates that 91 per cent of passengers cleared security in less than 15 minutes. For the same week, wait times for baggage retrieval dropped to 20 minutes compared to 26 minutes during the same time last year. And the current average wait time for passengers at customs is seven minutes.

Yet travellers may be right to be wary: thousands of flights were cancelled and delayed at the country’s biggest airports over Canada Day weekend, including at Pearson — an ugly reminder of the chaos that plagued air travellers last summer.

Looking ahead to the busy August long weekend, Flint said Pearson is working diligently to notify passengers earlier if a flight is impacted and to redirect them to alternative travel routes if needed.

“Next holiday weekend we’re here to make travel more consistent and reliable,” she said, adding that more staff will be available to assist travellers.

In May, it was announced that Pearson airport employers had hired 10,000 new employees since last summer, giving it 22 per cent more staff, or 50,000 workers in total. The GTAA has also spent money beefing up its baggage-handling systems. The increase includes the hiring of 130 new staff to help in critical areas such as busing, baggage handling and terminal operations.

There have also been more security guards hired by the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency, as well as more customs agents and border guards hired by the Canada Border Services Agency.

But while Pearson touts its improved performance, it’s still below industry standard, said John Gradek, a former Air Canada executive and head of McGill University’s Global Aviation Leadership Program.

“There’s no doubt improvements have been made since last summer, but is the level of performance acceptable? Of course not,” said Gradek.

From July 14 to 16, on-time departure performance at Pearson hovered around 57 per cent to 63 per cent, Gradek said, using data from FlightAware.

“They should be striving for 80 per cent minimum,” he said. “When you’re in the range they’re in now, that’s when there’s customer unrest.”

The poor on-time performance is largely attributed to Air Canada, he said, which has struggled to get its on-time performance above 65 per cent, frequently reporting in the 50 per cent range over the past three weekends.

“We are operating at near full capacity, successfully transporting approximately 140,000 passengers daily with higher numbers on peak days,” a spokesperson for Air Canada said in a written statement to the Star, adding that many of the delays are “relatively short.”

Severe weather has been a significant contributing factor to on-time performance, they added.

The persistent labour shortages at NAV Canada, which employs air traffic controllers, is also impacting performance, Gradek said. But after a hiring spree in the spring, a positive impact could be felt by summer 2024, he added.

“It takes time to train workers, and it will offer some relief next year,” he said.

Pearson didn’t offer data during peak times to understand how the airport performs under stress, said Barry Prentice, a University of Manitoba professor and a travel industry analyst.

“The data is selective, and much of the information only highlights a week in July,” he said, adding while the numbers show improvement, it’s relative to the extremely poor performance last summer.

“Last year, Pearson took a hit to its reputation, so I can’t see us going back to how things were last summer,” Prentice said.