On Tuesday 19 July, Toronto airport management, in partnership with the Canadian security services and the US border protection and security service, launched Project Advance, which will speed up immigration formalities with pre-screening to the United States. Toronto is one of the main gateways to the United States from outside the US. The Canadian airport handled 5.6 million passengers in 2015 - a third of all passengers who benefited from this formality. Toronto is in fact one of the main hubs to the USA, with some 217 daily flights linking the Canadian metropolis to 50 American cities.
The US administration's new regulatory requirements mean that pre-clearance formalities can be speeded up. These include checking baggage before going through security. They simplify the flow of baggage through security and reduce waiting times. In terminal 1, for example, the airport has installed 28 additional automated passport control kiosks, doubling the total number of machines to 56. The airport hopes to consolidate its role as a hub between North America and the rest of the world. Toronto is already the second largest international airport on North American soil, after New York JFK. The airport welcomed more than 41 million passengers in 2015.
