On Wednesday night, Air Canada announced that it would make flight adjustments over the next two months to address “customer service shortages”. And on Thursday, WestJet confirmed that it is pursuing a “very measured” strategy to retain services this summer. See what the two airlines announced.
AIR CANADA
Air Canada sent an email to customers on Wednesday night, announcing a reduction in flights that the airline will offer in July and August. 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 that, Air Canada said it operated about 1,000 flights a day. The company said that the routes most affected are flights to and from the junctions in Toronto and Montreal. Air Canada will reduce the frequency of these flights during the summer, mainly affecting night and late night flights on the airline’s smaller aircraft. Air Canada is also suspending three flights this summer. The spokesman 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, which the spokesman said would reduce rush hour flights and improve passenger flow to these destinations. While Air Canada President Michael Rousseau acknowledged in an email to customers that this would have a “negative impact” on some passengers, he said he hoped the alert would allow travelers to make other arrangements for their summer travel plans.
WESTJET
In a statement posted on its website on Thursday, WestJet said it would also operate fewer flights to ensure the company “can offer a stable operation”. WestJet says it will operate 25 percent fewer flights this summer, reducing its services from an average of 700 flights a day to 530 flights a day on average. The airline statement also states that the company is carrying out “extensive planning” to ensure that its flights “all fly at top performance”.
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