The U.S. has been plagued by holiday cancellations, but Canada’s two largest airlines say things are much smoother north of the border.
Multiple reports out of the United States this weekend point to major cancellation issues, blamed on both staffing shortages and weather issues. The website flightaware.com, which tracks planes around the world, reported 690 cancellations for flights within or into/out of the U.S. on Christmas Eve, followed by 996 on Christmas Day.
As of 1 p.m. Eastern Time today, the site was reporting 774 cancellations for flights within or into/out of the U.S.
Delta was looking at 131 cancellations today, about 5% of their flights, while United was facing 102 cancellations, which is about 4% of their flights.
The site doesn’t show Canadian cancellations, but it does list cancellations by airline. According to their stats, Air Canada was looking at 11 cancellations today, or 2% of their total flights. AC was facing 64 delays, which represents 16% of their flights.
For WestJet, flightaware.com was reporting 11 cancellations today, which is about 3% of their flights. WestJet was looking at 78 delays, which represents 27% of their routes, the site said.
That’s possibly due to snow and bad weather in British Columbia.
I reached out to both WestJet and Air Canada today.
“We have the crews to operate our schedule so we have not been impacted as some other carriers have been,” an Air Canada official told me in an email.
