The examination of the causes having caused sometimes major inconvenience to travelers during the holiday season should begin Thursday in Ottawa. Everything will then be inserted into a broader context of shortage of pilots, which has become a glaring issue. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport is due to begin its review on Thursday into what led to chaotic air and rail travel during the holiday storm that led to numerous delays and cancellations, in an environment of communication described as deficient by the number of travelers affected. The parliamentary committee plans to hear from federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. Representatives of Sunwing, WestJet, Air Canada, the rail carrier Via Rail and the Canadian Transportation Agency are also among those summoned.
This examination must then be integrated into the work already begun on the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, in force since 2019, reminds us of a text from The Canadian Press. It is expected that the exercise will result in an understanding of the causes that have sometimes caused serious inconvenience to thousands of travelers and a regulatory recalibration in order to better clarify the obligations of the airlines. It is hoped that the exercise will cover a broad enough spectrum so that, in an ideal world, passengers would have little or no need to call upon this “charter
travellers “.
And this spectrum must be anchored in its context. Mehran Ebrahimi, professor and director of the International Observatory of Aeronautics and Civil Aviation at ESG-UQAM, summarizes the situation well. “The shortage of pilots is a global reality, and in Canada, this problem is accentuated in the general context of a shortage of manpower. In addition, since the airline industry received little support during the pandemic, some of our pilots were hired by foreign companies. We estimate that currently there is a shortfall of approximately 1,500 pilots in the country. Given the cost of training and the lack of public training centers, we cannot fill these positions easily,” he wrote in an exchange.
of emails.
Already, the shortage was looming at the dawn of 2020. But the sudden halt in hiring and recruitment, even the plans for early departures, furnished the pandemic. “Airlines have laid off many employees, prompting many pilots to retire, leave the industry or move to other countries, where aviation has more support than in Canada” said last year Tim Perry, president of the Canadian branch of the Air Line Pilots Association.
Sunwing and Transat
Problem of shortage amplified by a lack of availability of simulators and accentuated by a regulatory reduction in the working hours of the pilots… This situation comes to camp the frame with which the air carriers must compose. And the one, more particular, with which Sunwing had to deal during the meteorological disturbances of the weather
celebrations.
The tour operator specializing in sun destinations generally meets its needs in high season by calling on foreign pilots as part of a federal program for the temporary hiring of foreign workers. The request this year was for
63 pilots.
A denial was received in late November, long after its flight program went on sale, said tour operator board chairman Colin Hunter, also in an email exchange. When bad weather came, during a busier-than-expected period fueled by latent demand brought on by the pandemic, he had to maneuver through a “perfect storm.”
Clearly, the rejection of the request to deploy foreign pilots and the conditions and flight schedules that were too demanding for its partner companies chartering planes forced it to subcontract replacement flights in a short period of time. In the meantime, Sunwing has attempted to reposition its aircraft in support of its operations, but the tour operator has seen the movement of its crew members itself affected by domestic flight delays and cancellations from other carriers also suffering the effects of the storm.
At Transat, the shortage of pilots is evident as the carrier operates in active recruitment mode. “We are already planning hiring and succession programs in anticipation of a certain number of retirements and to support our future plans”, underlines Andréan Gagné, Senior Director
Communications.
She says the pandemic has not exacerbated the situation. “Given that our capacity deployed for the winter program is comparable to the pre-pandemic level, we are returning to a so-called normal level of our operations and our number of staff. The spokesperson adds that during the workforce recall campaign, when activities resumed last year, the majority of pilots and flight attendants agreed to return on board.
The third heavyweight active in Quebec, Air Canada, had not responded to our emails, and Transport Canada had still not responded to us at the time of writing.