Despite the measures taken by Ottawa and various Canadian aviation companies in recent days to try to correct the situation, delayed flights and lost luggage continue to be the lot of many travelers met at Montreal-Trudeau airport on Saturday morning.
Daniel Marvan was to take a flight this morning towards Chicago with the Canadian company Porter Airlines, which recommends arriving 90 minutes in advance at the airport for this type of flight. Cautious, the young man arrived a little earlier than recommended, but he still missed his departure.
“I arrived an hour and 45 minutes early and waited for at least an hour in a giant security line. And my bag was flagged, so it took me another 15 minutes at least. In the end, I missed my flight probably about 15 minutes,” he sighs, waiting for the taxi to take him home. He will return to Montreal-Trudeau airport on Sunday to try his luck on another flight to Chicago, where his vacation will therefore be cut short. “I’m wasting a day when I could be in Chicago and have fun. »
Around 3 p.m. on Saturday, the FlightAware tracking service reported 150 flights delayed at Montreal-Trudeau airport, as well as 10 cancellations; numbers that have been steadily increasing since the start of the day. On Friday, 270 flights were delayed at this airport, while 16 others were canceled. Customers of Air Canada, Jazz Aviation and WestJet have suffered from this situation.
“It’s so frustrating,” laments Ashwini Patil. At five o’clock in the morning on Saturday, she and her two children went to the Montreal-Trudeau airport in anticipation of the Air Canada flight they were to take in the morning to go to Saint-Jean de Terre-Neuve in order to to reunite with family members. But after two successive delays, this flight was canceled altogether and replaced by another scheduled for around 8 p.m. this Saturday. “Am I going to leave today or not?” I don’t know, ”says Ms. Patil, who wonders if this flight will also be delayed or even canceled. “That’s the start of our vacation!” says the mother of the family, laughing, despite everything.
We are currently seeing demand for travel almost equal to that of 2019, but the entire airline ecosystem is facing a labor shortage.
Lack of manpower
On Friday evening, Transport Canada issued a press release to provide an update on “progress” made by the federal government and airlines to “reduce wait times and congestion at Canadian airports”. Nearly 1,200 screening officers from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority have been hired since April at all airports across the country, the statement said.
Random COVID-19 testing will continue to be temporarily suspended at all airports for travelers considered fully vaccinated “until mid-July”, while Transport Minister Omar Alghabra meets with officials. from several airlines in the past few days, the statement said.
However, the situation remains complex in several airports in the country, at a time when both these establishments and the airlines are faced with a shortage of manpower combined with a strong recovery in air travel in Canada and abroad. This complicates the management of travelers’ checked baggage, in addition to causing flight delays and cancellations.
“We are currently seeing demand for travel almost equivalent to that of 2019, but the entire aviation ecosystem is facing a labor shortage,” summarizes by email the director of public relations for Air Transat, Bernard Cote. “We continue to work with all stakeholders and airport authorities to improve the situation as quickly as possible,” he adds.
Several travelers met on Saturday also told the To have to that they made the decision to travel light this summer, without having checked luggage, after hearing about various horror stories in the media. “I saw this on television, all the suitcases scattered […] I decided to go there only with my hand luggage, ”says Kéliane Lévesque, who traveled without pitfalls from Sept-Îles to Montreal. “I was lucky. »
Joined by The dutyAéroports de Montréal did not want to comment on the evolution of the situation at Montréal-Trudeau airport in the last few days, inviting us instead to “contact the airline partners for any questions related to the management of flight schedules (delays / cancellation), ground services and baggage management”, these being “their responsibility”.
Air Canada and WestJet did not respond to requests from the To have toat the time of this writing.