Pearson airport 'lost the ability to check in passengers' today. Here's what happened

A network outage at Toronto Pearson International Airport that wouldn’t allow passengers to check in on Thursday morning has since been resolved. Due to maintenance work being done on the airport’s network systems on Wednesday night, it “lost the ability to check in passengers and process baggage,” spokesperson Sean Davidson told National Post over the phone on Thursday. “As soon as the outage was resolved, which was about an hour and 15 minutes, we were able to process passengers through the airport again,” said Davidson. The airport alerted travellers to the network outage in a post on X before 6 a.m. on Thursday morning. However, around an hour later, the airport posted again to say the issue had been resolved. Airport staff were “managing the flow of travellers” as some “longer-than-usual lines” were expected.

The network outage impacting some airport functions earlier this morning has been resolved. Operations are improving but expect some longer-than-usual lines through the morning. Airport staff are managing the flow of travellers. https://t.co/UKvmTa5LXV— Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) June 26, 2025

An alert that was featured on Pearson’s website early on Thursday morning that warned travellers of possible longer lines has since been removed. “The lines at the terminal have returned to normal, but as always, we recommend that passengers check their flight status before coming to the airport,” Davidson told National Post. “There’s no need to come longer than the two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international flights.” Just before 9:30 a.m., the airport said in a post on X that “wait times and operations have returned to normal in both terminals after this morning’s network outage.”

Wait times and operations have returned to normal in both terminals after this morning's network outage. https://t.co/duN38V85nd— Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) June 26, 2025

  Before the issue was resolved, one person told CityNews that the airport was a “zoo” and that his flight to the United States, scheduled for 6 a.m., had been delayed until noon. In mid-June, the airport posted about the summer months being a busy travel season, in particular “summer Fridays.” The airport said it expected to welcome around 158,300 people on June 13, with just over 1,000 planes moving through the country’s largest travel hub. It added that 407 of those flights were departing to or arriving from cities across Canada.

• Toronto Pearson: Police reveal what led to fatal shooting of 30-year-old at the airport
• What caused Delta Flight 4819 to crash? Aviation experts focus on crosswinds and its 'firm landing'

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.