Transport Minister Omar Al-Ghabra said that the Canadian Airport Security Agency is increasing its staff, but labor shortages are not the main reason for the unacceptable delays faced by passengers.

Many airports report extremely long lines at airport security checkpoints and border checkpoints while passengers say they have to wait for hours and sometimes miss their flights.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority said last week that employment challenges at the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority contribute to long lines at Pearson Airport in Toronto.

But Al-Ghabra says that CATSA's staff numbers are at 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels while flight volumes are still below 70 percent, so this cannot be the main problem.

Instead, he says travelers are causing delays at security checkpoints as Canadians return to travel mode after two years of quarantine.

Al-Ghabra says changing flight schedules has also led to large numbers of departures and arrivals at the same time, causing major bottlenecks at certain times of the day.