Air Canada has cancelled 360 of its flights from Canada’s largest airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport, in the first week of June alone.
Cancellation woes
Canada’s flag carrier has faced consistent struggles from its hub, Toronto Pearson International Airport. Passengers and staff have been battling long wait times, delayed flights, queues and lost luggage.
As a result, the vast majority of visitors travelling through the airport have not had the most pleasurable time. According to CTV News, almost half a million passengers faced delays after arriving on international flights to Toronto in May.
And now, Air Canada has been struggling. The carrier has cancelled approximately 360 flights, equalling 10%. The cancellations are made up of both arrivals and departures and for those flights that have not been cancelled, a significant number were delayed.
Though according to Peter Fitzpatrick, spokesperson for Air Canada, the cancellations and delays were not due to staff shortages or overbooked flights (the usual suspects we’ve come to suspect this year) but were due to Toronto Pearson International’s issues and the extent to which it has negatively affected the carrier’s day-to-day operations. He said:
“These can have knock-on effects not only for our customers but can also impact our employee resources and operations.”
The delays at Toronto Pearson have become a consistent issue and have led to issues for Air Canada’s crew as well. They’ve had no choice but to work extra hours and as delays began to stack up in many cases they were not able to continue as planned onto their next service.
To protect staff and not illegally allow crew to work and operate outside of their duty limits, Air Canada had no choice but to cancel a large number of flights to allow crews the essential rest period they require.
Elsewhere, fellow Canadian airline WestJet, the second-largest airline in Canada behind Air Canada, has also recently cancelled approximately 2% of its departing flights and 3% of arrival flights into Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Were you impacted by Air Canada’s flight cancellations? Or held up at Toronto Pearson International Airport? Let us know in the comments below.
