jje1000
Senior Member
Is this a recurring issue?
|
|
|
Toronto Pearson International Airport
- Thread starter p5connex
- Start date
lenaitch
Senior Member
I suppose I'm missing the point. If you mean that CBSA check seemed cursory, there is a whole lot of profiling going on, including the flight/source country, your declaration, passport history, etc. They also have to balance staffing with arrivals (whether they do it well is a point of huge debate). A flight arriving from Omaha against one from a drug source country is going to get less attention. If you are thinking of airport security in general, I have no idea of police staffing levels other than Peel has a uniform (incl. tactial) and plain clothes presence along with RCMP plain clothes, as well as GTAA airside and groundside security, Commissionaires, etc. that primarily deal with parking and traffic flow.
Amare
Senior Member
If there are multiple flights arriving from India or China, it's pretty much guaranteed one would run into this situation. I cant speak for anything outside of that/
lenaitch
Senior Member
Ya, I'm never quite sure how much actual conversation and cooperation happens between CBSA and airport operations.
nfitz
Superstar
For arriving? I've never seen anyone scanned, x-rayed, or searched on arriving anywhere, except at refuelling stops in Oman years ago. I've only really heard of this when coming in from airports that were huge security risks - like Libya.
Which country were you flying from?
Neutrino
Senior Member
The UK. So yes, I see your point.
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
I have never seen that happen, regardless if I'm arriving from Europe or the Far East or the US. Not sure about the South American bank though. But this is definitely a customs line, so I'm going to assume CBSA found some illegal insect or something on the plane when they inspected it and realized that they'd have to put everyone in the sterile area through customs to ensure nothing harmful gets into the ecosystem. Pearson's customs system is absolutely abysmal. I've never seen a more illogically designed customs system anywhere else. Over the few times I am pulled over for customs when I declare stuff (they usually just let everyone through and don't give a damn if you've lied on your declaration card), I've noticed that there are between 5 and 6 customs benches (where they check your stuff), of which, only 1-2 are ever in active service. Since they don't fully staff this area, I doubt they actually had enough people there when that happened to adequately check everyone leaving the sterile zone.
For a terminal as large as T1 with so much international and transborder traffic, they are not prepared to handle a situation like this. Pearson sees roughly 50M passengers per year, of which, 3/5s are international passengers of some sort, I'd estimate that 20 million international travelers (including transborder passengers) head through T1 every year, which is likely more than any other airport border facility in North America except maybe LAX and MIA. For them to have so few customs lanes and staff is honestly concerning.
vatche
Senior Member
The carpet there has to go. So difficult to push the carts
ndawgg
Active Member
Same thing happened on Monday night when I was coming in from Portugal. It was a mess. The last thing I wanted after waiting over an hour for my bags.
narduch
Senior Member
I would lose my mind if I was stuck in that.
Deadpool X
Senior Member
How? Pearson is more like to get A380s from Europe than India or China. In fact, there aren't that many many flights from India and China compared to Europe or Americas.
Amare
Senior Member
Flights from India and China always have a very high load factor compared to Europe trips. Then add to the fact the travellers from India and China bring countless number of luggages with them (beyond your typical weight and count limits) and the end result is massive lineups for luggage.
Deadpool X
Senior Member
A B777 from India or China with 100% load factor will have less passengers than an A380 with 80% load factor from Frankfurt. There are only 2 daily flights from entire India to Pearson compared to 9 just from London, UK. Maybe it's time to shed your bias?
Amare
Senior Member
Not really a bias, stand in Pearson and see how many times the crew announce "the cabin hold is full and the flight will be unable to accommodate any more luggage, any additional luggage will be accommodated on the next flight" with flights involving those 2 aforementioned countries. Never have I seen incidents like this involving flights to/from London, Frankfurt, etc...
nfitz
Superstar
As a white European, I've always travelled with much more luggage and bigger bags from India and southeast Asia than I do from coming Europe to Canada. Perhaps it's circumstances and not bias!