Pathetic Pearson Airport

[fish4life]

To be fair I think catsa is light years ahead of the TSA in the states for timing

[confusedalot]

Someone said something about the ''show'' of security somewhere.

It's the new normal, has been since 2001. So.....get to the airport in advance. Won't change no matter how much you complain.

Everyone is busy.

[Rockie]

#2 is staffing (Catsa). Come in the other night, try to exit the international baggage area with about 500 other people at T1. 2, count em 2, Catsa folks checking everyone through. Who knows how many others standing around gabbing.

Massive, slow line. Unacceptable. I'm a busy guy and so are many other people. I hate, just hate, my time disrespected by sheer staff laziness. Do your job!

CATSA checks people coming in to the airport secure area, not out. The two people you saw collecting declaration cards exiting the international baggage area are with Canada Customs whose job is to redirect people selected for secondary inspection. The hold up there is invariably people who put their cards away and have to find them again.

I fail to see how that equates to laziness on their part or disrespect for your invaluable time. Perhaps if you sent them some advance notice you were coming they could bring in 10 more officers on overtime, or maybe block other passengers from leaving their aircraft so you won't be outrageously inconvenienced by having to stand in a line.

[rookiepilot]

#2 is staffing (Catsa). Come in the other night, try to exit the international baggage area with about 500 other people at T1. 2, count em 2, Catsa folks checking everyone through. Who knows how many others standing around gabbing.

Massive, slow line. Unacceptable. I'm a busy guy and so are many other people. I hate, just hate, my time disrespected by sheer staff laziness. Do your job!

CATSA checks people coming in to the airport secure area, not out. The two people you saw collecting declaration cards exiting the international baggage area are with Canada Customs whose job is to redirect people selected for secondary inspection. The hold up there is invariably people who put their cards away and have to find them again.

I fail to see how that equates to laziness on their part or disrespect for your invaluable time. Perhaps if you sent them some advance notice you were coming they could bring in 10 more officers on overtime, or maybe block other passengers from leaving their aircraft so you won't be outrageously inconvenienced by having to stand in a line.

Hold up was 5-600 people, the most I had ever seen, and 2 officers, yes Canada customs my mistake. Lines stretched back to the last carousel.

What part of this don't you understand?

The airport is getting much busier. Not proper staffing, yes does disrespect everyone's time.

[Rockie]

I understood that it was customs and not CATSA which is more than you understood Rookie. While I share a fraction of your frustration with the long line ups that occasionally occur there I don't automatically assume it's a systemic staffing problem or laziness on the part of individual workers. I simply don't know...and neither do you.

[Transonic]

[/quote]
What part of this don't you understand?
The airport is getting much busier. Not proper staffing, yes does disrespect everyone's time.[/quote]

Your beef is with the government, more specifically the CBSA. The airport tells them how many passengers they should expect and the CBSA determines employment, not the GTAA. It's the CBSA's budget.

Perhaps the CBSA staff feel your same frustrations. They are understaffed and deal with a lot of unpleasant people and there is no incentive to exceed the responsibilities delegated to them in their assigned position for their shift.

500-600 passengers is 1-2 wide bodies worth. Aircraft and passengers arrive in ebbs and flows. If you were the CBSA manager with a budget, would you staff excessively to meet max capacity or staff to meet the average? Remember, it's about capital efficiency. It's your tax dollars at work. You would be equally upset if you entered the customs hall and saw an abundance of well paid government staff and no passengers.

[rookiepilot]

I understood that it was customs and not CATSA which is more than you understood Rookie. While I share a fraction of your frustration with the long line ups that occasionally occur there I don't automatically assume it's a systemic staffing problem or laziness on the part of individual workers. I simply don't know...and neither do you.

It's poor organization because I've seen 3-4 staff available, on site, standing around talking, while 2 people are doing all the clearing.

Amazingly enough too, I couldn't really care if it's customs or catsa or whoever.

[PostmasterGeneral]

Ok, what in the actual frig is up with the AK construction?? Day after day I see zero work actually happening there. What are they doing? Does anyone know when it’s supposed to be completed? It’s a complete goat rodeo in the meantime...

[sanjet]

Ok, what in the actual frig is up with the AK construction?? Day after day I see zero work actually happening there. What are they doing? Does anyone know when it’s supposed to be completed? It’s a complete goat rodeo in the meantime...

It's Canada, give it a few weeks of "pollution/environmental assessment study" before the workers will complete the job, consequently, it will be over schedule and over budget. All good though, got to make use of some of the most expensive landing fees in the world.

A few weeks later, they will probably open the ground again in order to rewire to have LED taxi lights installed on the taxi way line.

[skypirate88]

Apparently the current construction is slab replacement and some sort of tank removal. We asked apron a few days ago, and he seemed to think it'll be a couple more weeks before it is done.

It works out nice when you are on a hard time day... pretty easy to tack on 20 minutes now if you arrive at the right time.

[Inverted2]

They sure are taking their time at AK. Maybe they found a buried Avro Arrow or some Indian bones there?

[pelmet]

Something amazing happened yesterday at YYZ. I saw the high speed walkway operating....yay.