Canadian airlines say they’re doing much better when it comes to delays and cancellations. But it’s clear there’s still work still to do.
Air Canada today said there was a 48% reduction in flight delays of an hour or more between the week of June 27 and the week of August 8. WestJet on Tuesday said that, as per flight statistics provided by Cirium, from August 8 to 14, WestJet maintained its week-over-week completion factor with the airline completing 98.8 per cent of all scheduled flights. In addition, WestJet said it continues to lead amongst Canadian carriers for its on-time arrivals within 15 minutes of scheduled time.
Air Canada today provided the following update on its operational improvement initiatives implemented in response to the challenges the global airline industry has encountered emerging from the pandemic.
“At Air Canada, we know how much our customers value travel and their reliance on us to transport them safely, comfortably and without disruption. This is always our goal and we share with them their disappointment that, coming out of the pandemic, the global industry faltered due to the unprecedented challenges of restarting after a two-year, virtual shutdown,” said Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive of Air Canada.
“Earlier this summer, I committed on behalf of everyone at Air Canada that we would do everything possible to restore our company’s industry leading standards of customer care. Among other things, this included innovation at the airport, operational changes and significant schedule adjustments and today these are yielding demonstrable improvement in the metrics that matter most to our customers. While I am very satisfied with the progress to date, and I thank our employees for their unrelenting efforts, we all continue to work hard on behalf of our customers to complete our recovery.”
For the period June 27 to August 14, during which it carried approximately 6.4 million customers, the Air Canada family (including Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge and Air Canada Express), recorded the following operational improvements as it returns to its pre-pandemic customer service levels:
* Flight Delays – Comparing the week of June 27 to the week of August 8, there was a 48% reduction or 1,160 fewer flights that took a delay longer than one hour. In addition, flight delays overall are getting shorter. For flights that experienced any delay, the average arrival delay during the week of June 27 was 28 minutes longer than the same week in 2019. As of the week of August 8, this had improved to 12 minutes.
* Flight Cancellations – There has been a substantial reduction in the volume of flight cancellations. During the week of August 8, there was a 77% reduction in the number of cancelled flights as compared to the week of June 27. This translates into 960 fewer flights cancelled. Furthermore, flight completion, which is the percentage of all scheduled flights that are not canceled, reached 96.7% during the week of August 8, which was less than one percentage point lower than the same week in 2019. The vast majority of customers experiencing cancellations, often due to weather or other unexpected factors, were able to travel within 24 hours.
* Baggage Handling – The strongest area of improvement over this period can be seen in baggage handling, where the airline handles over 650,000 bags per week. During the week of June 27, mishandling rates per 1,000 customers were approximately 2.5 times the same number in 2019. As of the week of August 8, this rate has fully recovered to 2019 levels with a baggage handling success rate of 98%.
Air Canada continues to work with its partners to address the issues disrupting the air transport ecosystem in Canada. Evidence of the success of these joint efforts is a marked decrease in delays and cancellations for airlines, contributing to increased overall stability in Air Canada’s operations. This has resulted in an enhanced customer experience, with better on-time performance, schedule reliability and baggage delivery.
Each day on average, Air Canada currently operates nearly 1,100 flights and regularly carries 135,000 people. Air Canada has been prudently restoring its schedule as it recovers from the effects of COVID-19 and this summer it plans to operate 79 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity as the industry stabilizes. In support of this, the carrier has recalled employees laid off during the pandemic and continues to hire additional workers. It currently has approximately 34,000 employees compared to 34,700 prior to the pandemic.
WestJet this week said it’s reporting improvements* related to baggage wait times in its Calgary and Toronto hubs, as well as a 25 per cent decrease in reports of mishandled (missing) bags across its network, as a result of ongoing efforts to mitigate baggage delays and impacts across its network.
The airline continues to work alongside third-party service providers to alleviate baggage delays and has invested in additional WestJet oversight to support partners responsible for actioning and delivering baggage services in a timely manner.
Baggage wait-time improvements at major airports:
YYZ Toronto Pearson International Airport – 33 per cent improvement with an average current wait time of 35 minutes
YYC Calgary International Airport – Ongoing month-over-month wait time improvements with a current average wait time of 33 minutes
* Compared to June of 2022
According to FlightAware.com, 188 outgoing flights from Toronto Pearson were delayed on Tuesday, which represents 31% of all outgoing flights. That’s not great, but it’s better than the 39-40% delay figure we were seeing a week ago.
