Canadian carriers and airports were among the hardest hit in the world by flight delays during the long weekend of 1er July, according to a specialized firm.
The airline Air Canada ranked first for delays on Saturday and Sunday. Two-thirds of its flights, or 717 in total, took off late, according to the tracking service FlightAware. With a 67% delay rate on Sunday, it stood more than 14 percentage points above the three carriers tied for second place.
Jazz Aviation — a Halifax-based company that provides regional service for Air Canada — and low-cost airline Air Canada Rouge both saw 53% of their flights delayed, putting them second on Sunday alongside the Greek regional airline Olympic Air. Carrier WestJet and its low-cost subsidiary Swoop ranked third and fourth for delays on Saturday, with 55% of their flights late.
On the facilities side, Toronto Pearson Airport claimed second place on Sunday, with 53% delayed departures; only China’s Guangzhou airport did worse. Pearson has experienced more delays than Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Frankfurt Airport in Germany.
Montreal-Trudeau International Airport ranked sixth on Sunday with 43% delayed takeoffs, tied with Heathrow Airport in London, according to FlightAware data.
Air Canada announced last week that it would cut more than 15% of its summer schedule, or nearly 10,000 flights in July and August, as the country’s airline network slumps under an overwhelming upsurge in travel .
Caught between public holidays in Canada and the United States, the weekend saw scenes of long queues and baggage mazes flood social media, as airports around the world grappled with the start peak travel season after two years of pent-up demand. Passenger flow at Canadian airports is already at 2019 levels during peak hours, though closer to 80% of overall pre-pandemic volume, experts say.
Rebuilding after the pandemic trough
“It’s going to be like this all summer,” warned Helane Becker, airline analyst for investment firm Cowen. “Almost all airlines have encouraged their staff to retire early or take time off. And those people who took early retirement may not want to come back to work,” she observed. “It is difficult to rebuild after this trough. »
Some pilots have yet to have their licenses renewed, while ground staff and baggage handling positions remain vacant — or quickly vacated — due to low pay and stressful working conditions, unions say.
According to the federal Department of Transportation, government agencies have been on a spree of hiring for airport security and customs, with more than 900 new security screening officers in place since April — although not all have the permission to operate the scanners.
“Airlines have also used the pandemic to eliminate certain types of aircraft from their fleets, and to ground and retire their older aircraft. It’s hard to bring those planes back once you’ve parked them without doing a lot of maintenance,” M added.me Becker.
“As demand continues to increase, we are essentially looking at an inability for airlines to easily meet it. And I think that’s the case all over the world. »