In February and March this year, everyone saw the Omicron variant spreading rapidly and wondered when travel might resume. Public health officials said the worst was over and that some of the constraints could be lifted.
At that point, the airlines began discussions with CATSA and the airports about the services and number of flights they would be offering. However, they had no idea of the volume of passengers they would have. To their surprise, the number of passengers increased in late March and early April.
When authorities and agencies became aware of the increase, they had to start hiring people. However, hiring and training takes time. You need 12 to 15 weeks to train someone and get them into the workforce.
Also, the speed at which airlines tickets were being sold really surprised everyone. We now realize that we really should have had a few weeks, if not months, to make sure we had the staffing to offer these services.