Travellers passing through Toronto Pearson Airport faced significant customs delays Friday afternoon after another Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) systems outage disrupted primary inspection kiosks — the third such incident in just three weeks.
The outage, which impacted Pearson’s Terminals 1 and 3 as well as other unspecified Canadian airports, caused longer-than-normal wait times as officials scrambled to restore service. CBSA confirmed the issue was related to maintenance work and was not the result of a cyberattack.
“There is currently a CBSA Primary Inspection Kiosks outage due to maintenance work impacting some Canadian airports,” the agency said in a social media post. “We are working with partners on fixing the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.”
Similar outages occurred on September 28 and October 2 following what CBSA described as “unforeseen technical problems” during routine maintenance. Those incidents led to delays at airports across the country, including Toronto Pearson, and caused backlogs that took days to fully resolve.
By 3 p.m. Friday, CBSA announced that the latest outage had been resolved and service at customs kiosks had been restored.
The CBSA, which oversees border control, immigration enforcement, and customs services nationwide, continues to face scrutiny as repeated IT failures disrupt travel through Canada’s busiest airport hubs at a time of heightened passenger volumes.