Friday, Canada’s Minister of Transport, Omar Alghabra, faced a parliamentary committee that demanded answers for a summer of chaos in Canada’s major airports.
For an hour, Alghabra defended his ministry’s and government’s handling of the restart of travel in Canada, which has seen headline-grabbing lineups, delays, hours-long waits on the tarmac, and epic levels of luggage mishandling.
Here are the top four takeaways from media coverage of his testimony:
YYZ and YUL Currently Rank 2nd and 7th Worst Airports in the World for Delays- and that’s an Improvement
While the Minister assured parliamentarians that, "We are seeing significant improvements over the last two months," Canada’s airports are still among the world’s worst performers, notes the CBC.
For most of this summer, flight tracking service FlightAware had YYZ ranked as the worst airport in the world and YUL at number two.
It now says YYZ has crept ‘up’ into second place this month, with just over 44 per cent of departing flights delayed. (LGW takes over last place with 45 per cent.)
Meanwhile, YUL comes in as 7th worst, with over 39 per cent of flights delayed.
Canada’s Airport Restarts Accelerated Steeper than the U.S.
Alghabra told the transport committee that the increase in pax numbers in Canada in 2022 was “far higher” than in the U.S., which had begun ramping up its restart earlier, Reuters reports.
According to the National Post, he told parliamentarians that “Canada’s flights have surged more than 250 per cent since January, compared to just a 63 per cent increase in the U.S.”
He also said that the resulting surge in demand was now being managed more effectively, with less than half the flight cancellations in the second week of AUG compared to early JUL. In addition, he told parliamentarians that pax screening times have dropped.
The Government Blames COVID and Labour Shortages, not its Own Lack of Preparation for the Restart of Travel
Alghabra blamed COVID-19 and resulting labour shortages for airport wait times, says CTVNews.
“I want to be clear, that’s not an excuse, but it’s a fact,” he told the transport committee, also claiming that demand for travel surged beyond what “was expected.”
The minister actually took credit for what he said was the government’s quick response, according to CBC.
"We took action from the beginning and we will continue to do so."
But the report quotes Tim Perry, a WestJet pilot and president of the Canadian arm of the Air Line Pilots Association, who says he warned that same transport committee in JAN, 2021 that the federal government, as well as Canada’s airports and airlines, needed a plan to ramp up the restart of air travel. That was over a year before the resumption of travel - and it didn’t happen.
"There was no comprehensive co-ordination or restart plan for aviation," he told CBC. "A lot of what we see today was foretold then. And I hate to say 'I told you so,' but I told you so."
ArriveCAN is “Here to Stay”
Opposition members of the House of Commons transport committee also had a beef with the ArriveCAN app.
One Conservative MP grilled the Minister about whether the app is discouraging travel, but according to the National Post, Alghabra said there’s “no evidence whatsoever” that ArriveCAN is causing problems. In fact, he pushed back, claiming, “ArriveCAN is actually helping process arrivals much faster and helping reduce congestion.”
And, as CTVNews reports, the Minister asserts that the app actually “saves time to digitize a process that would otherwise take longer to complete manually.”
The PHAC advised that only 190 tickets for non-compliance with ArriveCAN use have been issued, a “very limited” number compared with the number of border arrivals.
The health agency said that it attempts to avoid fines if possible, even offering to help use the app or allow arrivals to fill in paper forms. It says the only ones fined are “individuals who are repeat offenders or simply will not comply” with filing health information or following public health measures.
