The most wonderful time of the year has turned into the nightmare before New Year’s for many American and Canadian travelers.
Last week it was Canada’s turn to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous travel. A massive snowstorm shut down airports in Vancouver and southern British Columbia a few days prior to Christmas, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, including many from Canada’s WestJet Airlines. A so-called “bomb cyclone” or “weather bomb” then swept across the United States and Eastern Canada, causing massive cancellations at airports in Seattle, Detroit, Buffalo and New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Toronto Pearson, Canada’s busiest airport, saw hundreds of cancellations just prior to Christmas.
Things appeared to be calming down by Boxing Day, Dec. 26. Pearson was a mass of travelers on Tuesday, Dec. 27, but that doesn’t begin to compare with the incredible mess faced by customers of Southwest Airlines.
On Tuesday alone, Southwest cancelled an incredible 2,694 flights, or 64% of all scheduled operations. By contrast, Alaska Airlines cancelled 10% of flights and United Airlines just 3%.Tens of thousands of passengers were affected, and many said they had no idea how they would get home or to their final destination. CNN said 84% of all cancelled flights in the U.S. on Tuesday were Southwest routes.
FlightAware.com reports 2,507 Southwest cancellations for today, or 62% of all routes. CNN says Southwest has canceled more than 15,700 flights since winter weather began disrupting air travel on December 22. That figure includes more than 2,300 flights already canceled for Thursday. The network said mountains of unclaimed bags were growing at airports in Las Vegas, Houston and Chicago.
U.S. Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg blew a gasket talking about the cancellations. He told PBS that other airlines in the States appear to have recovered from the weather problems, but not Southwest.
“Right now, ‘meltodown’ is the only word I can use to describe what’s happening across Southwest Airlines operations,” he said. “A majority of their flights are cancelled, and it’s led to catastrophic and unacceptable conditions.”
A Southwest pilot’s union official said an antiquated scheduling system for pilots and crew is partly to blame for the snafu, which has undoubtedly knocked Southwest down several pegs in the public’s estimation. How they handle the delays, which are expected to continue for a few more days, could be a great exercise in airline public relations. Or perhaps not.
The situation was better in Canada on Tuesday, where 39 Air Canada, Rouge and Air Canada Jazz flights were cancelled and 33 WestJet and WestJet Encore flights didn’t make it. Still, I flew out of Toronto Pearson Tuesday morning and it was a bit of gong show. The lineups at Terminal One were excruciatingly long, and it took me nearly two hours to get through the priority line at Air Canada so I could check my bags for my flight to San Francisco. The problem appeared to be wonky conveyor belts at the Air Canada check-in point, which worked only sporadically. The belts would move and a few suitcases would trickle on, but then the system would stop for five or more minutes.
A spokeswoman for Toronto Pearson said she wasn’t aware of any problems with conveyor belts at the airport, so it could’ve been an Air Canada issue.
Air Canada held our plane for 20 or 30 minutes and we managed to get on just in time. Our bags didn’t make it (understandable given we checked in at 7:55 a.m. for an 8 a.m. scheduled departure) but the minute I landed and turned on my phone I had three emails and three text messages from Air Canada telling me my bags would arrive at San Francisco Airport by 7:25 p.m. Pacific Time. That was unexpected, and a relief.
I woke up this morning and found an email saying at least two of our three bags (it was hard to tell by the website) would be delivered by noon today. Not that my bags are important, but it’s at least one person’s experience with the system. I’ll let you know.
The Toronto Star today reports that Pearson airport “is working through its luggage backlog and expects “many more bags” to be reunited with passengers by the end of Tuesday, as travellers reported going days without their belongings following extreme travel disruptions.”
Sunwing Airlines says weather issues in western Canada forced it to cancel a number of flights just before Christmas. CTV News reports some Canadians have been stranded in Cancun, Mexico for four days. Some customers say they’re not getting information, or that information provided by the airline turns out to be wrong.
Happy holidays? Not so much.
