If there’s one thing that unites airports, airlines and their travellers above all else, it’s frustration with security screening.Getty Images/iStockphoto
If there's one thing that unites airports, airlines and their travellers above all else, it's frustration with security screening. Long line ups at peak times have become the norm at most airports and calls for improvement are getting louder.
Daniel-Robert Gooch, president of the Canadian Airports Council, says federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau acknowledged recently that screening in Canada lags world standards and said improvements were in the pipeline, but didn't say what they would look like or when they would happen.
"CATSA (the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, a crown corporation that carries out screening) needs to be properly funded, and airports need to be able to hold CATSA accountable to a service level standard," says Mr. Gooch. "The two go hand in hand. You can't implement the service level standard without giving CATSA the tools it needs to perform the function. In this case, that means a funding model that will grow with demand."
He points out that travelers paid $721-million in fees for security, but the money is funneled into general revenue and CATSA has to go to government every year to find out how much it will get to perform its services.
"Appropriations for CATSA are stalled at 2010 levels," adds Mr. Gooch. "There have been a couple of top-ups since then, but wait times have grown over the same period. We are currently seeing some passengers wait in excess of an hour for screening at the larger airports."
He says CAC has recommended a service level standard that would see 95 per cent of passengers screened in under 10 minutes, and an even stricter standard for connecting passengers who have no control over what time they arrive at an airport.
"We've said that no passenger should wait more than 20 minutes," adds Mr. Gooch.
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