Toronto’s Pearson International airport — the busiest in Canada — has a PR problem, sparking concerns some people may avoid travelling to the city.
Disgruntled travellers passing through Pearson are posting about their bad experiences on social media, complaining about long line-ups, flight disruptions and missing baggage.
“Toronto’s Pearson Airport is a special circle of hell. The worst airport experience ever,” tweeted a traveller from Florida last week, along with a photo showing a departures board with more than two dozen delayed flights.
The airport’s troubles have also been featured in major international publications this month, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC.
“This is a national embarrassment,” said Walid Hejazi, an associate professor of of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “In the short term, this is clearly going to impact Canadian tourism.”
Toronto’s Pearson Airport is a special circle of hell. The worst airport experience ever. Good luck if you have to make a connection here. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/YYZ?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#YYZ</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/pearsonairport?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#pearsonairport</a> <a href=”https://t.co/kSFfaPTn8q”>pic.twitter.com/kSFfaPTn8q</a>
Due to a sudden surge in travel, airports across the globe have been plagued with congestion and flight disruptions.
But Pearson’s problems have garnered special attention, often because the airport has scored the top spot for the highest percentage of flight delays this summer: 57 per cent of all Pearson departures between June 1 and July 24 were delayed, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. That was the highest rate among the world’s 100 busiest airports.
“Toronto Airport Is World’s Worst For Delays,” announced a headline in the Wall Street Journal last week.
Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport scored the second spot with almost 53 per cent of flights delayed.
Toronto’s Pearson International has won top honors for airport service for years, but now it’s at the epicenter of a global air-travel meltdown <a href=”https://t.co/uDv3FlDlIl”>https://t.co/uDv3FlDlIl</a>
As with many airports across the globe, Pearson’s problems began when demand surged in May and many previously laid-off workers, including federal government employees, didn’t return — causing staffing shortages.
“Aviation roles are highly skilled, so it’s not as simple as hiring someone new and getting them on the floor of the terminal or out on the airfield,” said Tori Gass, spokesperson for The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) in an email. The GTAA, a non-profit corporation, operates Pearson.
But the explanation is no solace for inconvenienced passengers.
Business traveller Eric Griffin of Philadelphia says he has sworn off Pearson for the time being, following his recent travel experience.
Griffin flew from Philadelphia to Toronto on June 27 for an important meeting with a prospective client for his phone accessories company.
Things didn’t go as planned.
Eric Griffin of Philadelphia, left, flew to Toronto with his work colleague, Tim Kleczka. Griffin said his departing flight was delayed, his luggage went missing and his flight home was cancelled. (Submitted by Eric Griffin)
After Griffin’s Air Canada flight landed in Toronto, he said it sat on the tarmac for at least two hours, and then he spent the following three hours dealing with his missing checked bag. The bag, which contained important sales-related materials, didn’t surface until three days after his meeting.
Next, Griffin’s return flight was cancelled, so he drove the 800 kilometres home to Philadelphia.
“At this point, I was just done betting on Pearson airport. I just had no faith they were going to get me out of there,” Griffin said in a Zoom interview.
“My experience at Pearson airport was a zero out of 10 stars. I don’t think it could have gotten worse.”
He too took to social media, writing, “Don’t ever fly to Toronto Pearson airport this year,” in a Facebook post.
Travel’s comeback?
Although travel has surged recently, it has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels. According to Statistics Canada, the number of foreign arrivals to Canada by air in June was down by about one-third compared to June 2019, when adjusted to account for recent changes in tracking air travel.
The Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO) says the problems at Pearson, along with remaining travel restrictions such as the ArriveCan entry app, are hampering travel’s comeback.
Jessica Ng with the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario says the problems at Pearson airport, along with remaining travel restrictions such as the ArriveCan entry app, are hindering travel’s revival. (CBC)
“Folks are deciding that, ‘You know what? Based on what we’re seeing, we’re just not going to travel to Canada, to Ontario, to Toronto, because it’s seen as being too cumbersome,’ ” said Jessica Ng, TIAO’s director of policy and government affairs.
“It impacts … what people think of Canada as a premier travel destination, and it impacts tourism businesses just as they’re getting out of two years of restrictions and uncertainty.”
The Toronto Region Board of Trade said if Pearson’s problems aren’t resolved soon, it could negatively affect business travel, which picks up in the fall.
“From a reputational perspective, we don’t want to get to that point and we need to get in front of it,” said Jennifer van der Valk, a spokesperson for the trade board.
What went wrong?
Pearson is North America’s second busiest airport in terms of international traffic, following John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, according to the GTAA.
On top of dealing with staffing shortages, GTAA’s Gass said Canada’s stringent travel restrictions during the height of the pandemic virtually ground the industry to a halt, making the ramp-up “a lot steeper than other countries.”
Rotman’s Hejazi argues there should have been better pre-planning, and that Canada’s major airlines bit off more than they could chew.
“The airlines sold way too many tickets, more tickets than the airport capacity could handle,” he said.
WATCH | Baggage delays add to travel woes:
Luggage delays add to Canadian travel woes
1 month ago
Duration 1:54
Luggage delays are adding to the problems Canadian air travellers face, with some airports seeing mounds of bags piled up and some travellers not getting their luggage during an entire trip.
Canada’s two biggest airlines, WestJet and Air Canada, said they both proactively cut back their flights this summer by 20 and 25 per cent respectively. Air Canada cut thousands more flights in late June as travel chaos spread across the globe.
Meanwhile, both the GTAA and the federal government said they’ve been working hard to increase staff and speed up the movement of passengers through the airport. Efforts to streamline the passenger process include moving random arrival testing outside the airport, and adding more self-serve kiosks at customs.
“We’re seeing improvements, but we still have work to do to smooth the passenger journey,” said Gass.
Transport Canada also noted improvements, stating that for the week of July 11-17, 58 aircraft were held on the tarmac at Pearson, a decline of 84 per cent compared to the peak period during the week of May 23- 29.
“This decrease shows the significant progress that has been made to date to streamline passenger flows at Canada’s largest airport,” said Transport Canada spokesperson Laurel Lennox in an email.
Still, for peace of mind, business traveller Griffin plans to drive to Toronto for his next business meeting in September.
“I can predict when I’ll get there and when I’ll get home,” he said.
Netflix (NFLX) stock slid as much as 9.6% Friday after the company gave a second quarter revenue forecast that missed estimates and announced it would stop reporting quarterly subscriber metrics closely watched by Wall Street.
On Thursday, Netflix guided to second quarter revenue of $9.49 billion, a miss compared to consensus estimates of $9.51 billion.
The company said it will stop reporting quarterly membership numbers starting next year, along with average revenue per member, or ARM.
“As we’ve evolved our pricing and plans from a single to multiple tiers with different price points depending on the country, each incremental paid membership has a very different business impact,” the company said.
Netflix reported first quarter earnings that beat across the board on Thursday, with another 9 million-plus subscribers added in the quarter.
ADVERTISEMENT
Subscriber additions of 9.3 million beat expectations of 4.8 million and followed the 13 million net additions the streamer added in the fourth quarter. The company added 1.7 million paying users in Q1 2023.
Revenue beat Bloomberg consensus estimates of $9.27 billion to hit $9.37 billion in the quarter, an increase of 14.8% compared to the same period last year as the streamer leaned on revenue initiatives like its crackdown on password-sharing and ad-supported tier, in addition to the recent price hikes on certain subscription plans.
Netflix’s stock has been on a tear in recent months, with shares currently trading near the high end of its 52-week range. Wall Street analysts had warned that high expectations heading into the print could serve as an inherent risk to the stock price.
Earnings per share (EPS) beat estimates in the quarter, with the company reporting EPS of $5.28, well above consensus expectations of $4.52 and nearly double the $2.88 EPS figure it reported in the year-ago period. Netflix guided to second quarter EPS of $4.68, ahead of consensus calls for $4.54.
Profitability metrics also came in strong, with operating margins sitting at 28.1% for the first quarter compared to 21% in the same period last year.
The company previously guided to full-year 2024 operating margins of 24% after the metric grew to 21% from 18% in 2023. Netflix expects margins to tick down slightly in Q2 to 26.6%.
Free cash flow came in at $2.14 billion in the quarter, above consensus calls of $1.9 billion.
Meanwhile, ARM ticked up 1% year over year — matching the fourth quarter results. Wall Street analysts expect ARM to pick up later this year as both the ad-tier impact and price hike effects take hold.
On the ads front, ad-tier memberships increased 65% quarter over quarter after rising nearly 70% sequentially in Q3 2023 and Q4 2023. The ads plan now accounts for over 40% of all Netflix sign-ups in the markets it’s offered in.
Netflix reported first quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo (REUTERS / Reuters)
Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com.
Oil prices initially spiked on Friday due to unconfirmed reports of an Israeli missile strike on Iran.
Prices briefly reached above $90 per barrel before falling back as Iran denied the attack.
Iranian media reported activating their air defense systems, not an Israeli strike.
Oil prices gave up nearly all of early Friday’s gains after an Iranian official told Reuters that there hadn’t been a missile attack against Iran.
Oil surged by as much as $3 per barrel in Asian trade early on Friday after a U.S. official told ABC News today that Israel launched missile strikes against Iran in the early morning hours today. After briefly spiking to above $90 per barrel early on Friday in Asian trade, Brent fell back to $87.10 per barrel in the morning in Europe.
The news was later confirmed by Iranian media, which said the country’s air defense system took down three drones over the city of Isfahan, according to Al Jazeera. Flights to three cities including Tehran and Isfahan were suspended, Iranian media also reported.
Israel’s retaliation for Iran’s missile strikes last week was seen by most as a guarantee of escalation of the Middle East conflict since Iran had warned Tel Aviv that if it retaliates, so will Tehran in its turn and that retaliation would be on a greater scale than the missile strikes from last week. These developments were naturally seen as strongly bullish for oil prices.
However, hours after unconfirmed reports of an Israeli attack first emerged, Reuters quoted an Iranian official as saying that there was no missile strike carried out against Iran. The explosions that were heard in the large Iranian city of Isfahan were the result of the activation of the air defense systems of Iran, the official told Reuters.
Overall, Iran appears to downplay the event, with most official comments and news reports not mentioning Israel, Reuters notes.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that “there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites,” confirming Iranian reports on the matter.
The Isfahan province is home to Iran’s nuclear site for uranium enrichment.
“Brent briefly soared back above $90 before reversing lower after Iranian media downplayed a retaliatory strike by Israel,” Saxo Bank said in a Friday note.
The $5 a barrel trading range in oil prices over the past week has been driven by traders attempting to “quantify the level of risk premium needed to reflect heightened tensions but with no impact on supply,” the bank said, adding “Expect prices to bid ahead of the weekend.”
At the time of writing Brent was trading at $87.34 and WTI at $83.14.
