More than 500 Air Canada flights have been canceled in a week, shows data obtained by The newspaper.
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According to Cirium, an aviation analysis company, 530 Air Canada flights were canceled from June 1 to June 7 inclusive. This represents almost 6.9% of the flights planned by the airline during this period.
Toronto-Pearson crisis
Historically, the proportion of canceled flights at Air Canada rarely exceeds 2% of scheduled flights. During the corresponding period of 2019, just 1.4% of Air Canada flights were cancelled.
At WestJet, approximately 63 flights were canceled from 1is as of June 7, 2022, or 1.7% of the planned total.
As for Air Transat, none of the 375 flights that were scheduled during this period have been canceled.
The situation at Air Canada is mainly due to the current crisis at Toronto’s Pearson airport. No less than 360 flights from the carrier headquartered in Montreal were canceled at Pearson from 1is to June 7, according to Cirium.
Staffing issues
“Staffing issues at third-party government suppliers have impacted airport and carrier operations,” said Air Canada spokesperson Pascale Déry.
“In some cases, longer security delays, airport clearances and recurring air traffic control restrictions imposed by Nav Canada on aircraft movements, particularly at Pearson, have forced companies airlines to cancel flights. In addition, the United States was affected by bad weather at the beginning of the week, which also led to many flight cancellations,” she adds.
Snowball effect
The multiplying delays “can create a snowball effect”, adds Mme Déry.
“For example, an aircraft held at a gate longer than scheduled or a flight that is forced to be canceled suddenly can have an impact on the schedule of the ground staff who maintain the aircraft and on the schedule of crew members, thus disrupting subsequent flights”, she illustrates.