A huge chunk of travellers in Canada are changing their plans due to airport mayhem

Despite all efforts and some minor improvements, travelling through Canadian airports such as Toronto's Pearson International is still a frustrating mess, with things that used to be unfortunate exceptions — flight delays and cancellations, baggage woes, hours-long lineups and more — now far more common than not.

While one recent survey revealed that a whopping 45 per cent of people in Ontario would rather just drive to their destination than have to go through the mess at the nation's largest airport, another new poll has revealed how many people in Canada are actually changing their travel plans because of such issues.

Though Pearson has no doubt been the worst, airports in Vancouver and Montreal have been experiencing the same backlogs, which has prompted about 35 per cent of passengers in Canada to change their itinerary, according to the latest data from BNN Bloomberg and Ratesdotca.

Of this group, 56 per cent have simply put off their plans until a later date when the state of our aiports are hopefully a bit better. Another 18 per cent changed their destination and 13 per cent decided to drive instead of fly to avoid the chaos.

A lot more people — 78 per cent — are also intent on purchasing travel insurance for upcoming trips now knowing that a delay, cancellation or missed flight is very likely within the cards for them if they're flying out of one of the country's major hubs.

Some of the changes recently made by the authority that runs Pearson include more tech and AI like egates and advance customs declarations, and a big effort to increase staffing at customs, security and airlines.

Still, according to a recent press conference on the topic, 56 per cent of flights from Pearson lately have been delayed (versus a whopping 65 per cent in July).