Aerial Mayhem of the Holidays | Companies taken by surprise

The holiday season has quickly turned into a nightmare for many travelers with the proliferation of delays, cancellations and lost luggage. A winter storm came to muddy the waters, but data shows almost every airline was taken aback, ruining many people’s vacations.

For request of The Press, the firms Cirium and FlightAware, which compile data on the airline industry, painted the portrait of delays and cancellations between December 19 and January 4. Nationally, there were more than 2,400 during this time. At least two carriers, Flair Airlines and WestJet, have cancellation rates above 10%. On the other hand, Air Transat is doing well with an estimated “flights completed” rate of 99.5%.

The setbacks of Sunwing, which among other things had all the trouble in the world to repatriate hundreds of travelers stranded in Mexico after canceling their return flight, have been widely publicized. It is especially in terms of delays, particularly at Montréal-Trudeau, that the company is doing poorly. How have airports once again been the scene of seemingly endless queues, clumped suitcases and travelers who no longer know where to turn? With nearly full planes, there was very little room for maneuver for several airlines.

“Some managers wanted full aircraft with no spare aircraft on the ground to maximize revenue and profits because the holiday season is the most profitable time of winter,” explains the aviation expert and lecturer at the McGill University John Gradek. Without this flexibility, it is difficult to catch up on the accumulated backlog. »

On the wrong foot

If the airline industry has its faults, it was not helped by the winter storm that swept across the country in the days leading up to Christmas or by the harsh weather conditions in the United States. For example, snow and cold temporarily paralyzed the Vancouver airport.

Since few regions were spared by the vagaries of the weather, this partly explains why Air Canada and WestJet are posting more cancellations. The footprint of these two carriers is larger than that of their rivals. For example, aircraft that were expected in Quebec and Ontario got stuck in Western Canada, which exacerbated logistical difficulties.

Delays and cancellations are virtually inevitable at airports when heavy snowfalls are accompanied by strong winds, said Mehran Ebrahimi, professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and director of the Observatory of Aeronautics and civil aviation. However, we cannot blame everything on the weather, adds the expert. For travelers, the setbacks of carriers like Sunwing are a testament to the planning shortcomings of some, believes Mr. Ebrahimi.

As for Montréal-Trudeau, Air Transat proved to be the most reliable since almost all of its flights took place as planned. WestJet has canceled almost 20% of its flights. As for delays, about 7 out of 10 flights operated by Sunwing arrived at least 15 minutes late, according to FlightAware. This was the worst performance among the main Canadian companies present at Montréal-Trudeau.

other failures

Mr. Gradek also attributes the chaotic scenes at airports to poor communication by air carriers. According to this former manager at Air Canada, it was often too late to notify travelers of changes to their flights.

“This time, people went to the airport to learn on the spot that there were changes, explains the expert. In Vancouver, at one point, we found ourselves with 100,000 people in the terminal. No effort was made to warn passengers. »

According to the lecturer, this reflects a loss of expertise in the airline industry caused by the pandemic, which has prompted experienced workers to leave the industry for jobs deemed more stable.