A technical problem with the computer system allowing baggage check-in at Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport on Tuesday evening led to huge delays for travelers, whether they were heading to the city or departing.
Posted at 9:03 p.m.
Of the approximately seventy flights supposed to take off from Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport between 5 p.m. and midnight Tuesday evening, only a dozen left on time. The others are either delayed or canceled or subject to a revised time, according to a compilation of The Press at 8:50 p.m. More than a dozen scheduled after 10 p.m. still have no defined status.
On the arrivals side, the situation is just as catastrophic: only eight flights out of approximately 70 arrived – or were scheduled to arrive – on time, between 5 p.m. and midnight.
The problem: the device allowing the electronic check-in of passengers’ luggage failed, forcing staff to check in manually, confirmed the Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) media relations department.
All this has led to delays, particularly in the delivery of baggage to aircraft.
“The service provider worked tirelessly to get the system back up and running as quickly as possible and everything resumed gradually around 7:20 p.m.,” ADM said by email.
According to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), which represents ramp staff and baggage handlers at the airport, the outage began around 5 p.m.
Both international and domestic flights are affected.
With information from Julien Arsenault