TORONTO — Passengers are seeing a much smoother check-in process – without piles and piles of luggage everywhere – at Pearson Airport this morning.
The departures level at Pearson’s Terminal 3 was a chaotic scene yesterday, the result of delays due to technical issues with the airport’s baggage system. The problems at Terminal 3 began on Tuesday, said a spokesman for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
GTAA spokesperson Robin Smith said the issue involved the baggage system being unable to read luggage tags and automatically send each piece of luggage to the correct place in the airport. He called it an “all hands on deck situation”.
The problem affected some departing flights. Travellers were asked to allow extra time to account for the possibility of delays.
Technical issues at Terminal 3 departures (impacting all airlines) has created a backlog of luggage/delays tonight at #Pearson airport pic.twitter.com/6CEKZrzUhn
— Kayla-Marie Williams (@kaylamarieTO) August 16, 2017
Additional staff were on hand and airlines are using a simplified process to speed up check-in, he said.
“There is an element of manual processing. (We are using) a different kind of baggage tag, which is simpler,” Smith said. “We are seeing better results with it.”
The airport also asked passengers who only have carry-on bags to consider checking in online.
Some travellers took to social media to complain about the baggage system issues and the delays.
“Thanks to #TorontoPearson for delaying our flight home by three hours then not telling us our luggage wouldn’t be on the flight” one person tweeted Wednesday morning.
The airport has apologized for the delays caused by the issues with its baggage system.
“We are confident in our contingency plan that is going to allow passengers to continue checking in, moving through the security clearance process and getting to their gates (with) their bags arriving with their flight,” Smith said yesterday.
On any given day, Pearson handles about 100,000 pieces of baggage, he added.
With files from The Canadian Press
