Flight cancellations increased further around the world on Wednesday. And for the umpteenth day, Air Canada has climbed to the top of the world rankings for delayed flights.
Posted at 8:08 p.m.
By late Wednesday, 51% of Air Canada flights had been delayed, according to FlightAware. The Canadian carrier is the only one in the world to have had a delay for more than half of its flights. Australian low-cost airline Jetstar was in second place with 47% of its flights delayed.
Toronto Pearson Airport was ranked fifth and sixth globally among airports for flights affected by delays (departures and arrivals), with 37% of flights delayed.
Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport obtained a better score with 25% and 26% of delayed flights (departures and arrivals).
Passenger flow at Canadian airports is already at 2019 levels during peak hours, though closer to 80% of overall pre-pandemic volume, experts 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 on the job since April — although not all have the permission to operate the scanners.
Air Canada has hired more than 2,000 airport workers and more than 750 in customer service centers this year, for a workforce exceeding 32,000 employees, or 93% of 2019 levels.
Thousands of flights canceled
British Airways announced on Wednesday that it was canceling 10,300 additional flights by the end of October to make up for staff shortages, even though it had already reduced its flight schedule for several months.
The day before, 657 flights of Brussels Airlines, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, had also been withdrawn.
In Portugal, the director general of ANA, which manages 10 airports in the country, admitted on Wednesday that there were “sometimes serious” problems at airports. As elsewhere, dozens of flights have been canceled in Portugal in recent days, especially in Lisbon.
Last week, Air Canada announced that it would slash approximately 154 flights a day in July and August.
First lawsuit against KLM for misleading advertising
Environmental organizations said on Wednesday they intended to sue Dutch airline KLM over “misleading” advertisements about the sustainable and environmentally friendly nature of its flights.
The NGOs said they had filed a summons in the Amsterdam court after issuing an ultimatum to KLM in May, asking it to change its advertising campaigns.
“It is now high time to bring the first global lawsuit against misleading claims of sustainable development in the aviation sector,” said in a press release the Dutch association Fossielvrij NL, at the origin of the approach, supported by the ClientEarth NGO.
With Agence France-Presse and The Canadian Press