Luggage bags are amassed in the bag claim area at Toronto Pearson International Airport, as a major winter storm disrupts flights in and out of the airport, in Toronto, on Dec. 24.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
The Greater Toronto Airport Authority says it is experiencing a baggage backlog caused by frozen equipment and weather-related flight disruptions.
Some passengers who have flown out of Toronto Pearson during the frantic holiday season say they’ve waited days for their bags to show up at their destinations, with little communication on the status of their luggage.
Images posted to social media appear to show hundreds of lone bags piled up at the airport.
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Jason Long of St. Catharines, Ont., says he arrived in Halifax on Boxing Day after days of cancellations due to extreme weather, only to be told by airport staff that his luggage was never loaded onto the plane at Pearson.
Long says the missing checked bag contained most of his personal belongs, and its disappearance forced him to go out shopping for new clothes, toiletries and to replace a Christmas gift for his mother.
Hamilton resident Angela McNamara says she arrived in Cuba on Christmas Eve without eight of her family’s ten checked bags, which they had filled with toys, presents and food for her husband’s family.
McNamara says she’s been given little information on the status of their bags from their airline, Air Transat, or Toronto Pearson airport, though an employee at the Cuban airport told her they were still in Canada.