Canadian air travellers could have been forgiven for a bad case of déjà vu the last couple of weekends.Hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at the country’s biggest airports — including Toronto’s Pearson International — were an ugly reminder of the chaos that plagued air travellers last summer.But were the disruptions a sign we’re doomed for a repeat, or merely a blip on the radar?Industry analysts worry we’re headed for a repeat and point the finger of blame mostly at Air Canada, the country’s biggest airline, which had 1,965 flights — more than half its schedule — delayed or cancelled over the Canada Day long weekend. Other airlines, including WestJet, had substantially better on-time performance.“If it was just one weekend, you might be able to argue it was a blip. But this is two weekends in a row. I think this is going to continue for the rest of the summer,” said John Gradek, a former Air Canada executive and head of McGill University’s Global Aviation Leadership Program. Gradek pointed out that there were plenty of Air Canada flights delayed at Pearson and Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport the previous weekend, too.Air Canada blamed bad weather at some of its Canadian and U.S. hubs for most of the delays and cancellations, and pointed out it had successfully carried 600,000 passengers over the holiday weekend.“We accomplished this even though the weather had a major impact on the industry, notably in the U.S. … We are the largest foreign carrier to the U.S. by frequencies, so issues there affect us disproportionately versus other Canadian carriers, and this can have knock-on effects to our entire system,” an Air Canada spokesperson said.Unlike last summer, when staffing shortages at airlines and airports as well as a host of agencies led to delayed or cancelled flights, long lineups at customs and security, and lost baggage, this time around, Gradek said most of the blame lies with the airline. Last summer, just 35 per cent of flights coming in and out of Pearson were on time.“I don’t think you can really blame Pearson, NAVCAN, CBSA or CATSA for this,” Gradek said. “To me, this is on Air Canada.”The airline bumped up its summer flight schedule by 23 per cent, Gradek said, with fewer large planes in its fleet. He points out that, in 2020, Air Canada got rid of 24 wide-bodied planes like Boeing 767s and Airbus 330s. They sold most of them and converted a handful of others into cargo planes. A decision to trim costs during the pandemic is now biting back, Gradek argued.“They took 24 big planes out of their fleet and are flying the hell out of the rest,” he said. “They used to have some spare capacity, so they could swap out a plane if it needed servicing or if one was stuck somewhere because of weather. They really don’t have that anymore.”Nadine Ramadan, a spokesperson for Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, said until the last two weekends, more flights were on time than last summer, and passengers waited less time to go through customs and security. Still, the spokesperson said, there’s reason to stay vigilant.“Last weekend shows that airlines still need to do better to deliver on the flights they’ve promised to passengers, and we’ve made this clear to them. All players in the industry have a role to play to ensure smooth operations for Canadian passengers,” Ramadan said.At the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), which runs Pearson, there are roughly 10,000 more staff on-hand than there were last summer, putting the airport above pre-pandemic staffing levels. The GTAA has also spent money beefing up its baggage-handling systems. The increase includes the hiring of 130 new staff to help in critical areas such as busing, baggage handling and terminal operations.There are also more security guards hired by the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency, as well as more customs agents and border guards hired by the Canada Border Services Agency. While there was a shortage of air traffic controllers the last weekend of June, NAVCAN, the agency responsible for air traffic control, has said it is hoping to increase staffing levels.Barry Prentice, a University of Manitoba professor and a travel industry analyst, said that while there’s some blame to spread around, there’s no doubt that Air Canada has been jam-packing its flights, and echoes Gradek that the airline doesn’t have any extra planes around.“Building slack into the system costs money. They decommissioned a big part of their fleet,” Prentice said.And there’s good reason Air Canada is making sure every single flight is packed to the gills during summer vacation season, Prentice said. Because of the work from home trend hastened by the pandemic, business travel is no longer the year-round money-maker it once was.“The airlines really made their money on business travel. And business travel really hasn’t bounced back in the same way, so they’re leaning into leisure travel,” Prentice said. “They don’t know what the fall and winter are going to look like, so they’re trying to maximize revenue while they can.”That, Prentice said, holds true for all airlines at the moment. And, he added, the entire industry is still rebuilding itself in the wake of the pandemic.“An industry doesn’t recover from something like the pandemic overnight, or even in a year or two,” Prentice said. “The chaos will continue.”
Canadian air travellers could have been forgiven for a bad case of déjà vu the last couple of weekends.
Hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at the country’s biggest airports — including Toronto’s Pearson International — were an ugly reminder of the chaos that plagued air travellers last summer.
But were the disruptions a sign we’re doomed for a repeat, or merely a blip on the radar?
Industry analysts worry we’re headed for a repeat and point the finger of blame mostly at Air Canada, the country’s biggest airline, which had 1,965 flights — more than half its schedule — delayed or cancelled over the Canada Day long weekend. Other airlines, including WestJet, had substantially better on-time performance.
“If it was just one weekend, you might be able to argue it was a blip. But this is two weekends in a row. I think this is going to continue for the rest of the summer,” said John Gradek, a former Air Canada executive and head of McGill University’s Global Aviation Leadership Program. Gradek pointed out that there were plenty of Air Canada flights delayed at Pearson and Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport the previous weekend, too.
Air Canada blamed bad weather at some of its Canadian and U.S. hubs for most of the delays and cancellations, and pointed out it had successfully carried 600,000 passengers over the holiday weekend.
“We accomplished this even though the weather had a major impact on the industry, notably in the U.S. … We are the largest foreign carrier to the U.S. by frequencies, so issues there affect us disproportionately versus other Canadian carriers, and this can have knock-on effects to our entire system,” an Air Canada spokesperson said.
Unlike last summer, when staffing shortages at airlines and airports as well as a host of agencies led to delayed or cancelled flights, long lineups at customs and security, and lost baggage, this time around, Gradek said most of the blame lies with the airline. Last summer, just 35 per cent of flights coming in and out of Pearson were on time.
“I don’t think you can really blame Pearson, NAVCAN, CBSA or CATSA for this,” Gradek said. “To me, this is on Air Canada.”
The airline bumped up its summer flight schedule by 23 per cent, Gradek said, with fewer large planes in its fleet. He points out that, in 2020, Air Canada got rid of 24 wide-bodied planes like Boeing 767s and Airbus 330s. They sold most of them and converted a handful of others into cargo planes. A decision to trim costs during the pandemic is now biting back, Gradek argued.
“They took 24 big planes out of their fleet and are flying the hell out of the rest,” he said. “They used to have some spare capacity, so they could swap out a plane if it needed servicing or if one was stuck somewhere because of weather. They really don’t have that anymore.”
Nadine Ramadan, a spokesperson for Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, said until the last two weekends, more flights were on time than last summer, and passengers waited less time to go through customs and security. Still, the spokesperson said, there’s reason to stay vigilant.
“Last weekend shows that airlines still need to do better to deliver on the flights they’ve promised to passengers, and we’ve made this clear to them. All players in the industry have a role to play to ensure smooth operations for Canadian passengers,” Ramadan said.
At the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), which runs Pearson, there are roughly 10,000 more staff on-hand than there were last summer, putting the airport above pre-pandemic staffing levels. The GTAA has also spent money beefing up its baggage-handling systems. The increase includes the hiring of 130 new staff to help in critical areas such as busing, baggage handling and terminal operations.
There are also more security guards hired by the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency, as well as more customs agents and border guards hired by the Canada Border Services Agency. While there was a shortage of air traffic controllers the last weekend of June, NAVCAN, the agency responsible for air traffic control, has said it is hoping to increase staffing levels.
Barry Prentice, a University of Manitoba professor and a travel industry analyst, said that while there’s some blame to spread around, there’s no doubt that Air Canada has been jam-packing its flights, and echoes Gradek that the airline doesn’t have any extra planes around.
“Building slack into the system costs money. They decommissioned a big part of their fleet,” Prentice said.
And there’s good reason Air Canada is making sure every single flight is packed to the gills during summer vacation season, Prentice said. Because of the work from home trend hastened by the pandemic, business travel is no longer the year-round money-maker it once was.
“The airlines really made their money on business travel. And business travel really hasn’t bounced back in the same way, so they’re leaning into leisure travel,” Prentice said. “They don’t know what the fall and winter are going to look like, so they’re trying to maximize revenue while they can.”
That, Prentice said, holds true for all airlines at the moment. And, he added, the entire industry is still rebuilding itself in the wake of the pandemic.
“An industry doesn’t recover from something like the pandemic overnight, or even in a year or two,” Prentice said. “The chaos will continue.”
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