Cold weather is wreaking havoc again for Canadian air passengers today.
WestJet issued a statement this afternoon to say they’ve had to consolidate roughly 15% of their flights through the end of January.
According to statistics from flightaware.com, which tracks flights around the world, there have been early 200 flights cancelled today involving just five Canadian airports. Toronto Pearson, by far the largest airport in Canada, was listed as having 53 cancellations, while Vancouver was at 51 and Calgary close behind at 48. There were 28 flights cancelled in Montreal as of noon Eastern Time today, while 14 were listed as cancelled in Edmonton.
Flightaware said Calgary-based WestJet was being hit the hardest, with 49 flight cancellations, or 19% of all flights. Air Canada was listed at 23 cancellations, or 5% of all flights.
“Over the past 72 hours, we have seen a significant increase in delays and cancellations impacting our business,” WestJet Interim President and CEO Harry Taylor said in a statement. “As we work to stabilize our operation to best serve our guests, we understand this has been immensely challenging and frustrating and for that we apologize.
“We could not have anticipated the rapid and unpredictable impact of the Omicron variant on our people and operations, coupled with prolonged frigid temperatures across Western Canada and global staffing shortages. Despite all contingency planning, in addition to hiring back thousands of WestJetters to safely support peak operations, we find ourselves no longer able to predictably resource our planned schedule due to Omicron impact and have made the difficult decision to consolidate approximately 15% of scheduled flights through to January 31, 2022.”
“Schedule changes will be implemented over the coming days, and while consolidation is a last resort, it demonstrates the reality of the service we planned versus that we can now realistically deliver. It is the best option to ensure the availability of our frontline staff and third-party service providers, while minimizing the impact on our guests,” Taylor said.
“Our team is making every effort to consolidate flights that have the least disruption; all guests with impacted flights will be proactively notified. For any WestJet-initiated cancellation or schedule change, where the schedule change was greater than 90 minutes or one or more stops were added, guests are eligible for a refund to original form of payment if desired, or can utilize WestJet’s flexible change and cancel policies. Guests are encouraged to utilize self-serve options prior to calling for assistance; guests seeking support outside of the 72-hour travel window are able to schedule a call-back.
“Additional measures are urgently needed from our federal and provincial governments to minimize disruption. Canada has an envious global leadership position in vaccination rates and transportation is the only fully-vaccinated ecosystem and the most tested consumer activity in Canada. National alignment and standardization for our sector, similar to the approaches being taken by provinces to stabilize other essential services such as healthcare, would remove inconsistent provincial isolation requirements that are restricting staffing abilities.
“We are actively engaging with the federal and provincial governments in light of evolving scientific data available on the Omicron variant, as changes would aid us, along with our sector, in more effectively scheduling crew and employees, while maintaining essential air service for Canadian communities.
Delta Airlines was catching flak from some observers in the U.S. today after it came to light that the airline had asked U.S. health authorities to shorten the recommended quarantine time for people with positive tests from 10 days to five.
With the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, the 10-day isolation for those who are fully vaccinated may significantly impact our workforce and operations,” Delta officials said, according to National Public Radio (NPR) in the U.S.
Air Canada says it’s been challenged by the weather and other issues, but they didn’t reveal any planned service cuts.
“There is no question that the challenging weather across Canada, from vast amounts of snow and cold temperatures in BC, deep freezing in the Prairies, to winter conditions at other hub airports has resulted in limited disruption to our operation,” the company said in an email to jimbyerstravel.com. “While overall we have the crews to operate our flights, some of aviation’s third-party service and support providers have experienced operational constraints, which together with the difficult winter conditions, have affected the current schedule.
“Air Canada’s teams are proactively managing this situation which is primarily weather-driven. Approximately 4% of Air Canada’s flights have been affected over the past week, with customers automatically rebooked to travel the same day or within 24 hours. Our focus is always on the safety of our people and operations while getting our customers safely on their way as quickly as humanly possible.
“For its 2022 schedule, Air Canada continues to evaluate and adjust its route network as required in response to the trajectory of the pandemic, government-imposed travel restrictions and quarantines, regulatory requirements and overall demand. Affected customers will be contacted by Air Canada and offered options, including refunds for eligible customers and alternative routings where available,” the company said.
The Globe and Mail reports that Air Canada has already cancelled “hundreds of flights” for January, but it didn’t say precisely how many. The Globe also said Air Transat is reducing its schedule between January 12 and February 25, but that Transat officials wouldn’t confirm the number of cancelled flights.
In the U.S., United had cancelled 190 flights by 9 a.m. Eastern Time, roughly eight per cent of all flights.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was again being slammed today, with 287 cancellations. That’s a little more than one in four flights.
U.S. airlines have said that the Omicron variant is causing staff shortages, which has led to cancellations. Canadian airlines say it’s more of a winter weather issue than a staffing problem.
MSN.com reports that JetBlue also is “feeling the effects of rising Omicron coronavirus variant cases and preemptively reducing its flight schedule through mid-January in anticipation of an impact on its operation. A total of 1,280 flights are affected by the schedule cuts in effect, JetBlue confirmed to Insider, between December 30 and January 13, 2022,” according to a story on the MSN website.
The weather looks to be improving over the weekend in Vancouver, which is expecting light snow and a high of -1C today. But it’s still cold in Alberta. The Weather Network predicts a high of -16C for Calgary today, followed by a brief warm spell, and then more bitter cold to welcome the new year.
“We are tremendously grateful to our guests who have continued to demonstrate patience and understanding during these uncertain times,” WestJet’s Taylor said. “In the face of adversity, our people and our partners have continued to rise to the challenge to ensure our guests get to where they need to go safely. We appreciate the continued support and are committed to providing transparent updates in the days ahead.”
