Air Canada provides operational update after recent severe winter storm in Eastern Canada

MONTREAL – Air Canada issued the following update on its operations after recent severe winter storm activity in Eastern Canada and a major aircraft incident that has reduced capacity at its Toronto Pearson global hub.

“Yesterday was a difficult day, and we were greatly concerned by the incident involving Delta Air Lines. Our thoughts remain with that flight’s customers and crew,” said Craig Landry, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Air Canada.

“Unfortunately, this incident added to weather events over the past few days that have been extremely challenging for airlines in Eastern Canada. We recognize that travel disruptions are inconvenient for customers, but safety must always be our top priority and sometimes ensuring safe travel requires slowing down and adapting to conditions. I thank our employees for their hard work and dedication, including their willingness to work overtime and extra shifts, to take care of our customers,” said Mr. Landry.

“As a result of the recent storm and the incident at Toronto Pearson, there have been extensive delays and Air Canada has cancelled approximately 1,290 flights over the past six days. Despite this, we successfully and safely moved more than 650,000 customers during that time. We are currently restoring our service, adding extra flights and capacity where possible. However, the necessary and ongoing reductions in the number of take-offs and landings permitted at our global hub in Toronto is slowing the speed of recovery. We anticipate it may take several more days, depending on the weather, to return to fully normal operations. We appreciate our customers’ understanding during this time.”

Information for Customers

Winter weather can have a severe impact on the operations of an airline.

• Self Service Tools: Air Canada offers extensive self-service tools on aircanada.com and on its Air Canada app for customers looking to cancel, change or make other changes to bookings. These should be used whenever possible. Customers can also use these tools to obtain the latest status on their flights.
• Contact Centres: Due to the disruptions, contact centres are currently experiencing very high volumes resulting in extended hold times. Customers not scheduled to travel within 48 hours are advised to call back closer their planned departures. Given the nature of the disruption, with many flight delays and cancellations, calls are taking longer than normal as agents work with customers to find and book travel alternatives, which is also adding to wait times. Agents are working extended shifts and on overtime, doing their best to serve customers and work through the backlog as quickly as possible. Customers who booked their travel through a travel agent, including online travel agencies, should contact their original booking source for assistance in rebooking. Customers who booked directly through aircanada.com or through our contact centres can use the call-back feature to avoid waiting, however call back wait times are elevated.
• Schedule: Prior to the storm, Air Canada reduced its schedule in anticipation of the weather limiting the number of flights permitted to take off and land at major airports. For example, at Toronto Pearson approximately 44 flights are normally allowed to take-off each hour, but with recent conditions the number of movements has been restricted to as few as 16 per hour. This has been done for safety reasons, including to give the airport time to remove snow and ice. As a result of the storm and the aircraft incident, Air Canada had to further remove flights from its already reduced schedule. These are now being restored as conditions allow.
• Hubs: Toronto and Montreal are Air Canada’s two largest hubs. For example, on an average day, approximately 47 per cent of Air Canada’s flights and 46 per cent of its customers pass through Toronto Pearson. Because many of its aircraft and customers connect through Toronto at some point in the day, a disruption at Pearson can impact flights elsewhere in the system, creating a domino effect that can also impact flights not immediately travelling to or from Toronto.

The article Air Canada provides operational update after recent severe winter storm in Eastern Canada first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.