“Unfortunately, things are not as usual in our industry worldwide and this affects our activities and our ability to serve you with our usual standards of care,” wrote Michael Rousseau. The airline will reduce its capacity as summer travel peaks and pandemic-related restrictions continue to be lifted. In an e-mail to CTV News Channel, an Air Canada spokesman said the company would reduce its schedule by an average of 154 flights a day for July and August. Prior to the change, Air Canada said it operated about 1,000 flights a day. The most affected routes are flights to and from Toronto and Montreal airports. The changes will reduce the frequency of these flights and will mainly affect evening and late night flights on the airline’s smaller aircraft. The spokesman also said the airline would temporarily suspend flights between Montreal and Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Kelowna and Toronto and Fort McMurray. International flights will remain largely unaffected, except for time changes that the spokesman said will reduce peak-hour flights. “In order to achieve the level of business stability we need, we are reluctant to make substantial reductions in our schedule in July and August to reduce the volume and passenger flows to a level that we believe the aviation system can accommodate.” . the statement states. Although Rousseau acknowledged that this would have a “negative impact on some customers”, he said he hoped informing the public about the airline’s reduced schedule would allow travelers to make other arrangements. “We are convinced that these changes will bring about the improvements we have been aiming for,” he said. “But in order to set expectations, it must also be understood that the real benefits of this action will take time and will only be felt gradually as the industry regains the credibility and robustness it gained before the pandemic.” Recent figures show that as we approach the summer travel season, more than half of all flights to and from some of Canada’s major airports are canceled or delayed as tourism and airlines continue to face staff shortages. On Wednesday, the CEO of Montreal-Trudeau Airport – where Air Canada said it would reduce some of its flights – told CTV News Montreal that the airport was already in talks with airlines to reduce the number of flights. “We are having discussions and it is possible the frequency – the number of flights we will have to a specific destination – or the destinations themselves,” said Philippe Rainville, adding that the lack of staff at the airport causes problems, especially with loading. and unloading luggage from planes. Toronto Pearson International Airport is facing similar problems, with videos circulating on social media that appear to show hundreds of pieces of luggage stacked in the baggage claim area. “I had talks with the four largest airports and the two largest airlines only on Thursday and I will continue talks with them soon,” Transport Minister Omar Algambra told a news conference on Wednesday. “They know they need to add more resources and they are working on it and we offer our support to address these issues. “But these are unacceptable issues.” Airline and airport workers say some of the big reasons behind the struggle to deal with the lack of staff in the industry are that they are not being treated well and that their pay is not enough for how difficult the job is. “There are so many inspectors who have resigned because of low pay and poor working conditions that airports are overcrowded,” David Lipton, a spokesman for United Steelworkers in Ottawa, told CTV National News on June 19. Lipton said some unions offer screening staff hundreds of dollars a week if they do not take vacations or sick days. With records from CTV News Montreal, CTV News Toronto and Alexandra Mae Jones
