Members of a House of Commons committee plan to meet Monday to discuss a request for a study of Canadian flight cancellations and airport delays.
CTV News reports that members of the House of Commons Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Committee are scheduled to meet on Monday.
“Throughout this the height of our travel season, the government has refused to listen to advocates, front-line workers and ordinary Canadians to make common-sense improvements to our country’s airports and scrap their continued measures leading to further delays,” said Conservative transport critic and committee vice-chair Melissa Lantsman, in an email to CTVNews.ca on Friday. “There has been no meaningful improvement and our reputation continues to be tarnished globally.”
Lantsman said the committee’s opposition members want Transport Minister Omar Alghabra to explain the reason for the delays in ensuring Canadians are given “the service levels they deserve” when travelling, CTV said.
The website Flight Aware said Toronto Pearson had the worst record for delays for several weeks in late spring/early summer.
Deborah Flint, President and Chief Executive Officer of the GTAA, said this week that Canada’s busiest airport is “seeing measurable improvements in flight delays, cancellations, baggage delivery and wait times. But Flight Aware reports that 37 flights that were supposed to leave Pearson on Thursday were cancelled; about five per cent of all flights. For incoming flights to YYZ, 44 were cancelled, about seven per cent. For outgoing flights, there were 264 delays, or a full 42%. For incoming flights on Thursday, there were 271 delays (43%). For Friday, stats show 34 cancelled outbound flights (5%) and 277 delays (46%). For inbound flights on Friday, there were 38 cancellations (6%) and 248 delays (41%).
The Trudeau government this week put out another in a series of statements about Canada’s airports, saying senior officials have met with Toronto Pearson and other major airports to help solve the problem. Ottawa also says it has more than 1,600 Canadian Air Transport Security Authority workers.
