Outage at Toronto Pearson Customs Kiosks Triggers Lengthy Delays

Arriving passengers at Toronto Pearson International Airport are facing hours-long waits at customs after an outage affecting Canada Border Services Agency border inspection kiosks forced a sudden switch to manual processing, slowing the flow of international travellers through Canada’s busiest hub.

Technical outage disrupts primary inspection kiosks

Publicly available information from traveller reports and online postings indicates that customs processing at Toronto Pearson shifted into contingency mode after an IT issue affected the Canada Border Services Agency’s Primary Inspection Kiosk system. The kiosks, which normally handle the bulk of identity checks and customs declarations for arriving international passengers in Terminals 1 and 3, went offline, leaving border services officers to process each traveller individually at primary inspection booths.

The disruption mirrors earlier national incidents documented by the CBSA, where outages in late 2025 temporarily disabled primary inspection kiosks at major Canadian airports and led to significant delays for international arrivals. In those cases, systems supporting both traveller processing and risk screening experienced performance problems over several days, underscoring the central role of kiosk technology in the modern border experience.

According to government guidance on kiosk operations, Pearson is one of Canada’s main test beds for automated border clearance, with a dense network of kiosks and eGates in both terminals designed to accelerate screening and reduce face-to-face processing time. When that technology fails, throughput in the customs halls can drop sharply, creating bottlenecks that quickly ripple back to aircraft waiting at gates and passengers held onboard.

Online discussions from affected travellers describe aircraft parked for extended periods after arrival while customs halls operated at or near capacity, a metering approach that has been used in previous CBSA outages to avoid overcrowding inspection areas. While this keeps flows manageable inside the terminal, it lengthens overall journey times and can complicate onward flight and ground transport plans.

What the outage means for arriving passengers

The immediate impact for travellers is longer and less predictable waiting at the border. Instead of using self-service kiosks to scan passports, take a photo, and submit an electronic customs declaration, arriving passengers are being directed into traditional primary inspection lines where each case is handled manually. CBSA documentation notes that in such scenarios travellers are re-routed to officer booths and that processing times inevitably increase as kiosks are taken out of service.

Reports from those landing at Pearson during the outage describe waits ranging from under an hour for some flights to more than three hours for others, depending on arrival time, passenger volume, and whether travellers had access to trusted-traveller programs. The variability reflects how quickly queues can build when several widebody aircraft arrive in close succession and automated capacity is reduced.

Families and travellers without special program memberships appear to be most affected, as they are funneled into the standard primary inspection corridors. The CBSA’s own service-standard information emphasizes that wait times at airport primary inspection are monitored and managed jointly with airport authorities, but also acknowledges that operational realities and surges in traffic can push times higher than published targets, especially when technology interruptions occur.

By contrast, frequent travellers enrolled in programs such as NEXUS or other verified-traveller schemes sometimes benefit from dedicated lines and separate processing infrastructure that can continue to operate even when general-use kiosks are offline. However, the degree of relief these programs provide depends on the nature of the outage and whether linked systems are affected at the same time.

How Pearson’s border system usually works

Under normal conditions, passengers arriving from international and United States flights at Toronto Pearson are routed to CBSA’s primary inspection area, where they either use a kiosk or speak directly with an officer. Airport and border-agency information describes the current model as heavily automated: up to five travellers from the same household can complete a joint declaration at a kiosk, which captures biographic data, travel details, and a photograph before printing a receipt for an officer to review.

This model was introduced as part of a broader modernization effort by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and CBSA to shorten processing times, reduce document handling, and support more sophisticated identity checks. Pearson’s customs halls have been reconfigured around this technology, with multiple kiosk banks and, in some areas, eGates that enable eligible travellers to self-scan before exiting to baggage claim.

CBSA documentation on kiosk and eGate deployment identifies Pearson as one of Canada’s most intensively automated ports of entry, featuring both arrivals kiosks and dedicated facilities for connecting passengers, including a satellite primary inspection line in Terminal 3 for those transiting to domestic flights. Airport corporate reports also highlight investments in monitoring tools intended to keep kiosks functioning during system interruptions and to improve resilience when federal IT services encounter difficulties.

Despite these safeguards, the outage shows that the system remains vulnerable to upstream technology problems within the broader federal IT network that supports border programs. When central services experience interruptions, local fallback measures at airports can mitigate but not fully absorb the loss of high-throughput self-service processing.

Knock-on effects across the airport operation

Customs slowdowns at Canada’s busiest hub rarely remain confined to the arrivals hall. As lines lengthen at primary inspection, arriving flights can be held at gates while passenger flows are staggered, limiting gate availability for inbound aircraft still in the air. Airlines may then face the prospect of airborne holding patterns, delayed departures, or last-minute gate changes as ground operations adjust to the reduced capacity at the border.

Traveller reports during the latest outage describe a familiar pattern: extended waits on parked aircraft, prolonged queues in customs corridors, and congestion in public arrivals areas as family members and ground transport providers attempt to time pickups. Previous technology-related disruptions at Pearson have shown how quickly these conditions can develop during peak arrival banks, particularly in the evening hours when international traffic is heaviest.

The slowdown may also complicate connections. Passengers with tight layovers who must clear customs and re-check bags for domestic or onward international flights face an elevated risk of missed departures while kiosk systems are offline. Although airlines often rebook travellers affected by such disruptions, itineraries involving separate tickets or different carriers can be harder to protect, increasing the chance of unplanned overnight stays.

Beyond immediate passenger inconvenience, recurring border IT issues can influence perceptions of Pearson’s reliability as a global hub. Past commentary around similar outages has frequently pointed to the airport’s dependence on multiple federal systems, where local management has limited control over the root causes of disruption but must manage the operational consequences in real time.

Advice for travellers heading into Pearson

For those scheduled to arrive in Toronto while border kiosks are still recovering from an outage, planning extra time into the journey is critical. CBSA and airport guidance for busy travel periods already recommends arriving well ahead of departure times, but inbound travellers with connections or important appointments should also consider the possibility of longer waits at customs when automated systems are not fully available.

Monitoring airline notifications and airport status pages before boarding can help gauge the likely impact. While wait-time information for customs is not typically provided in real time, Pearson’s online status tools and social-media updates can offer a sense of overall congestion in the terminals. Travellers may wish to adjust ground transport bookings or alert those meeting them that arrivals could be delayed beyond scheduled landing times.

Those who frequently travel across the Canada border might evaluate whether joining a trusted-traveller program such as NEXUS aligns with their patterns, as these programs can provide access to separate lanes and kiosks that sometimes operate independently of general-use systems. However, membership does not guarantee immunity from disruption, particularly during broader IT outages that affect multiple components of the border-processing network.

Published information from both Pearson and CBSA suggests that technology modernization and improved resilience for kiosks remain priorities, with recent reports highlighting investments in offline-capable systems and enhanced monitoring. Even so, the current outage illustrates that occasional periods of disruption remain a reality for travellers using one of North America’s busiest international gateways.

Canada Border Services Agency: How to use kiosks and eGates

Toronto Pearson: Customs and immigration overview

CBSA: IT Outage summary report for traveller systems

Toronto Pearson: Satellite Primary Inspection Line information