Canadian airlines and airports took the top spots in flight delays during the July weekend, more than almost any other worldwide. Air Canada ranked first in delays on Saturday and Sunday that affected more than 700 trips overall, or about two-thirds of its flights, according to tracking service FlightAware. It was more than 14 percentage points above the three carriers that tied for second place. Jazz Aviation – a Halifax-based company that provides regional services for Air Canada – and lower-cost Air Canada Rouge saw 53 per cent of flights delayed, placing them in No. 2 alongside Greek regional carrier Olympic Air. On Saturday, WestJet and its budget subsidiary Swoop took third and fourth place with 55 percent. On the airport front, Toronto’s Pearson earned the No. 2 spot on Sunday after 53 percent of departures were postponed, behind only China’s main airport Guangzhou. Pearson won Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Frankfurt Airport in Germany. According to FlightAware data, Montreal’s airport ranked sixth on Sunday with 43 percent of takeoff delays, on par with London’s Heathrow. Air Canada said last week it would cut more than 15% of its summer schedule, nearly 10,000 flights in July and August, as the country’s air network shrinks due to an overwhelming resurgence in travel. The weekend, which was blocked by public holidays in Canada and the US, saw scenes of long queues and baggage mazes flood social media as airports around the world faced the start of the peak travel season after two years of subdued demand . Passenger flow at Canada’s airports is already at 2019 levels during peak periods, although it is approaching 80 percent of pre-pandemic volume overall, experts say. “This will be with us all summer,” said Helane Becker, an airline analyst for investment firm Cowen. “Almost every airline has encouraged people to take early retirement or leave. And those people who took early retirement may not want to go back to work,” he said of airline employees. “It’s hard to rebuild from those lows.” Some pilots have yet to have their licenses renewed, while ground crew and baggage handling positions remain unfilled – or are being vacated quickly – due to low pay and stressful working conditions, unions say. Government agencies are on a hiring spree for airport security and customs, with more than 900 new security screening systems in place since April — though not all are licensed to operate the scanners — according to the federal Department of Transportation. “Airlines have also used the pandemic to eliminate aircraft types from their fleets and to ground and retire their older aircraft. It’s hard to bring these aircraft back once you park them without doing a lot of maintenance,” added Becker. “As demand continues to grow, we are essentially looking at the inability of airlines to easily serve it. And I think that’s true worldwide.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 4, 2022
