Thousands of travellers' plans for the Canada Day long weekend were disrupted by sweeping flight delays and cancellations across the country, with media reporting the stories of a new wave of frustrated Canadian air pax.
Roughly half of all Air Canada flights — including those operated by Rouge and regional partner Jazz — were disrupted 01JUL through 03JUL, according to FlightAware. Air Canada's 1,965 flight delays and cancellations accounted for over 52 per cent of the airline's scheduled flights, while other Canadian carriers such as WestJet, Air Transat, and Flair Airlines also saw some flight disruptions, but at lower levels.
Several factors contributed to the difference in performance between Air Canada and other Canadian airlines, reports CP24. Air Canada operates a significant number of international flights, making it more susceptible to disruptions caused by problems across borders or oceans. The airline’s codeshare partner, United Airlines, also made headlines over the last week with its own high percentage of flight disruptions, as Open Jaw reported, which had a spillover impact on Air Canada as well.
Additionally, storms in Central Canada and the U.S. northeast had a more significant impact on Air Canada compared to WestJet, which primarily operates in western skies.
Air Canada itself attributed the increase in disruptions to the surge of traffic in the peak summer travel season, with 140,000-plus customers boarding the airline's planes daily, reports CBC News. Many disgruntled pax took again to social media to express their frustrations about long lines, crowded terminals, delayed departures and customer service, reminiscent of the chaotic scenes seen at airports in the early days of post-pandemic travel recovery last year.
The airline's performance during the holiday weekend was also worse than compared to the previous weekend, when there was an unexpected shortage of air traffic controllers, reports CTV News.
Air Canada's spokesperson, Peter Fitzpatrick, emphasized in a statement that the carrier's top priority is ensuring the safety of all passengers, even if it requires extra time.
The airline's statement added that it is fully staffed, with more employees on the job than in the summer of 2019 before the pandemic struck.
However, former Air Canada COO Duncan Dee warned that if operational issues aren't resolved soon, passengers could still be seeing repeats of these problems through the rest of the busy summer season.
