Welcome to IAG

… IAG being Niagara Falls International Airport.

After an uneventful 4-hour flight — with two beverage services and two boxed-meal services — we made a smooth landing at IAG. Being in the first row, we were first off the plane … after the “expensive-suite passengers” deplaned from the first class cabin.

Customs and Border Control officers, who came on the plane to give us instructions, escorted us to the small building at the far end from where our aircraft was parked. Being fairly “spry” we made it to the building before most and quickly went through the immigration process. Then back to where the aircraft sat … the transfer buses to Toronto nearby.

Our checked bags were cleared as a group before they were offloaded from the plane and brought to us where we waited near the buses.

I’ve been using the hour or so it took for everyone to complete the formalities and find their seats on the bus to write this little bit. There is plenty of room between the three buses Quark has chartered to take us to Toronto. So we all have two seats to ourselves.

It will be good to be able to spread out for the ride that we’ve been told will take somewhere between 2½ to 3 hours. It will depend on what we encounter at the Rainbow Bridge border checkpoint. The Quark rep on our bus said that it took them about 20 minutes to enter the US this morning. Fingers crossed we have a similarly fast experience, too.Read more