Flight delays and cancellations continued to accumulate Friday at Montreal-Trudeau airport, playing on the patience of travelers who were struggling to catch their flight or find their luggage.
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“All of our airline partners are currently experiencing human resource shortages. The recovery of the travel industry is much faster than the recruitment capacity”, resigned himself to exposing the Montreal-Trudeau airport, Friday on Twitter.
A still difficult situation on the 1is July
Nearly 233 flights were delayed Friday at Montreal-Trudeau airport and 48 trips were canceled. The day before, 289 flights had not left at the scheduled time, when 40 of them did not leave the tarmac.
Air Canada passengers, however, are the ones who suffered the most from the problems of delays.
According to the table of scheduled flights, Air Canada had to delay about thirty flights departing from Montreal and about fifty which were to arrive at the airport of the Quebec metropolis during the day. The carrier also had to cancel trips, a dozen at the level of departures, but also arrivals.
But according to Aéroports de Montréal, the operations correspond to those usually recorded during periods of high traffic.
Flights canceled throughout the summer
In order to regain some control over the situation, Air Canada was the first carrier to announce the cancellation of flights for the summer, on June 29.
“We must, reluctantly, make substantial reductions in our schedule in July and August, in order to reduce volumes and passenger flows to a level that we believe is viable for the air transport system”, can we read in a message signed by the President and CEO of Air Canada, Michael Rousseau.
WestJet also quickly followed suit and announced the next day a 25% reduction in its flights for the summer period, “for an average of 530 flights per day”.
Travel advice
With all the delays recorded, it is recommended to arrive beyond the usual three hours in advance.
In addition, it is preferable to prioritize carry-on baggage and carry medication there, Air Transat said in a Twitter post. The risks of losing a suitcase are thus limited.
It is also recommended to check in online to avoid queues when arriving on site.
Travelers must also make sure they have all the documents required for boarding, a situation that can currently be tricky as many Quebecers have difficulty obtaining their passports in time.
The cancellation option is also to be taken into consideration when purchasing a ticket in order to be able to obtain a refund in the event of a change of mind for a flight.
Direct flights are also preferred to avoid the additional constraint of managing to catch another plane without incident.
The situation elsewhere in the country
The busiest in Canada, Toronto’s Pearson airport is no exception to the trend with 644 flights experiencing delays and 116 canceled for Thursday, according to FlightAware data.
The problem persisted on 1is July since 534 flights did not leave on time and 122 were cancelled.
On the side of the airports of Calgary and Vancouver, the situation had improved somewhat with a hundred delays and a little more than twenty cancellations on Friday. In Ottawa, Macdonald-Cartier Airport had only 53 delays and 10 cancellations.
No change was seen at Jean-Lesage airport in Quebec, where only 19 delays were posted that same day.
– With information from FlightAware