News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
 9.7K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 41K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 5.5K     0 

Well yes, but it is the border after all. Just seemed too lax for me.

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.
 
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/
Ya, I'm never quite sure how much actual conversation and cooperation happens between CBSA and airport operations.
 
Well yes, but it is the border after all. Just seemed too lax for me.
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?
 
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?

The UK. So yes, I see your point.
 
Is it just me or is Pearson security very lax? When I arrived, other than scanning our passports and getting the receipts, everyone was waved through customs without a second glance. We didn't even have to go through x-rays or metal detectors.

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.
 
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/
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.
 
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.
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.
 
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?
 
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?
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...
 
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!
 

Back
Top