The Canadian Transport Minister spoke about the "unacceptable issues" that continue to cause significant delays at Canadian airports after images appeared on social media showing hundreds of pieces of luggage stacked at Pearson International Airport.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which operates Pearson, said on Tuesday that a number of problems over the past several days have led to "challenges in the baggage handling process," including "flight delays and cancellations, staff shortages, and temporary mechanical disruptions in the baggage system."

Dozens of people have so far spoken about losing their luggage at Pearson Airport. Several photos have also been posted on social media showing massive piles of luggage in the baggage claim area at Pearson, where travelers were forced to search in hopes of finding their lost bags.

For his part, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told reporters in a press statement, "What we are witnessing today are delays, cancellations, and issues related to problems delivering passengers' baggage, despite many issues with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and the Canada Border Services Agency having significantly improved." "I had talks with the four largest airports and the two biggest airlines just on Thursday and will follow up with them soon. They know they need to add more resources, and they are working on that while we provide our support to address these issues. But these are unacceptable issues."

Alghabra said that the federal government has done everything it can to address the issues at Canadian airports, including increasing staffing at customs and security checkpoints.

He added that his government is also considering "the possibility of extending the suspension" of random COVID-19 testing, which was supposed to be lifted on July 1. He said this is because it is taking longer than expected to handle the logistics of off-site testing transport.

"What we are seeing is an increase in demand for air travel beyond what anyone anticipated, and this is frankly good news. But the increase in demand exceeds the capacity of airlines and airports to boost the resources they need to accommodate this surge. So we are working with airlines and airports to ensure the necessary resources and schedule adjustments are met to alleviate daily peak times."

It was reported that many of the baggage issues at Pearson relate to Air Canada flights, where Air Canada said "avoiding baggage arrival delays is a top priority" as they are "annoying and inconvenient" for customers and result in additional costs that the airline must ultimately bear.

But they said problems faced by the airports lead to last-minute flight cancellations, which simply cause more baggage delays.

For his part, John Tory, the Mayor of Toronto, told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday when asked about Pearson Airport issues, "I am not personally familiar with the exact way baggage is handled, but certainly from my limited knowledge, I understand that most of the responsibility lies with the airlines, so I will look into this with Air Canada and find out from their perspective what the problem is, what they are doing to solve their part, and whether they think governments broadly can be helpful in making things work better so these problems do not arise."

Edited by: Dima Abu Khair