In a statement following a meeting on Thursday 23JUN with senior officials from Transport Canada, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), NAV CANADA, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the CEOs of Air Canada, WestJet and Toronto Pearson, Montréal Trudeau, Calgary and Vancouver airports, Canada’s Transport Minister said the industry summit “assessed the progress made by all partners to reduce congestion at airports and next steps.”
In the run-up to the industry summit, Omar Alghabra made it clear the federal government’s position that airline and airport officials – not just the federal government – has a role to play in reducing the long lineups, delays, and increasing reports of lost or mishandled baggage plaguing the return of air travel in Canada.
Friday, 24JUL, in addition to recapping its own progress in boosting staffing for security screening and border officials, as well as providing PHAC staff to assist arriving pax with ArriveCAN requirements, the federal government on its part announced changes to ArriveCAN itself.
Improvements to ArriveCAN
The Government of Canada says these improvements to ArriveCAN will make the app “faster and easier for travellers to use.”
Travellers arriving at Toronto Pearson or Vancouver Airports will be able to save time by using the Advance CBSA Declaration optional feature in ArriveCAN to submit their customs and immigration declaration in advance of arrival. Beginning 28JUN, this option will be available on the ArriveCAN mobile app in addition to the web version.
Frequent travellers are also encouraged to take advantage of the “saved traveller” feature in ArriveCAN. It allows a user to save travel documents and proof of vaccination information to reuse on future trips. The information is pre-populated in ArriveCAN the next time the traveller completes a submission, which Ottawa says will make it faster and more convenient for repeat arriving pax.