To return to a certain balance at Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau international airport in the coming weeks, it will be necessary to reduce the supply of flights and therefore cancel some of them, warns the CEO of Aéroports de Montréal (ADM ), Philippe Rainville.
“We have not only returned to pre-pandemic traffic levels,” underlines Mr. Rainville. “At the moment, in peak periods, we are even beyond the levels known before the pandemic. It’s a much stronger recovery than we expected,” he said.
The situation at the airport has been very difficult for several weeks, as evidenced by the numerous delayed or canceled flights, the long queues, and the piles of luggage on arrival.
The strong recovery in travel, combined with a major labor shortage, is causing logistical problems from which travelers are suffering.
“We will have to temporarily abandon certain destinations and therefore cancel flights in the coming weeks”, explains Philippe Rainville, who says he is in constant discussion with the airlines to relieve the current situation. ” But it is difficult. We don’t want to ruin anyone’s vacation,” he said.
For several weeks, airlines have been under pressure forcing them to delay or cancel their flights altogether. Yesterday, Tuesday, Air Canada had the highest rate of delayed flights in the world – while two-thirds (66%) of its flights were delayed, according to data from FlightAware, a company that provides flight tracking information in real time around the world.
For departures, as for arrivals, Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau International Airport in Montreal was among the five airports in the world with the highest rates of delayed flights yesterday, according to FlightAware. the situation seemed to be easing, according to their data, and seeing the queues at airport departures which seemed reasonable when passing the To have toin the morning.
For those who are preparing to travel and intend to pass through the airport gates in the coming weeks, the CEO of Aéroports de Montréal recommends arriving 3 hours in advance, opting for a bag cabin rather than in the hold (while making sure to check that the products in it are authorized so as not to slow down security), but also… to be patient.
Further details will follow.