Canada’s major airlines are undergoing a grilling in Ottawa today, and the head of Sunwing said his company could’ve done a better job handling holiday travel chaos.
Summoned to a House of Commons committee that wants answers to questions about the holiday travel chaos that left many Canadians stranded overseas, Sunwing president Len Corrado was asked about cancellations that left hundreds of Canadians stranded in Mexico. He also was questioned about why Sunwing cancelled all flights to Saskatchewan over Christmas.
Corrado apologized for the way the situation was handled.
“The bottom line is, we know we could have done better,” he said.
The National Post reports that Corrado “blamed the issues on massive winter storms across the country, which
‘included the virtual shutdown of Vancouver’s airport, and caused major delays in Ontario and Quebec,’ airport infrastructure issues, and the denial of an application to bring in 63 foreign pilots, who would have been based in Regina and Saskatchewan.”
Sunwing’s Andrew Dawson said the airline received 7,000 complaints tied to the 2022 holiday travel season; a mix of compensation requests, questions about extra expenses incurred, and refund requests.
Canadian airline officials today said problems were “compounded” by a series of unfortunate incidents, some of which were out of their control.
“Our preparation efforts began early in the fall for this winter’s peak season, holding weekly meetings, tracking our preparedness towards peak. What we could not have foreseen in this preparation was the compounding scale of the weather events that we encountered in our system between Dec. 18 and Dec. 24,” said WestJet’s Scott Wilson, vice president of flight operations.
Airline executives said some problems were out of their control, including a shortage of de-icing fluid at Vancouver International Airport and the breakdown of baggage machines at Toronto Pearson.
“While many of these factors were out of our control, I want to be clear with this committee and Canadians that our team immediately jumped into action to try to make things right for our customers,” said Corrado. “We failed to deliver to the level that we had expected, and the Canadians had expected from us over this holiday season.”
“We operated nearly 1,000 daily flights on average. An Air Canada plane took off almost every 90 seconds of every day of the holidays. And we did this despite the extreme weather,” said Air Canada vice-president of system operations control Kevin O’Connor. “Severe weather can drastically impact our schedule and our movement of people and their baggage. A delay in one part of the country has a knock on effect across our network.”
Officials from major airports, including Toronto Pearson, are slated to speak to the committee this afternoon. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra also is supposed to appear before the group.
Federal Conservatives and New Democrats agree that Canadian air travel compensation rules must change, including bringing in regulations that would force airlines to compensate passengers automatically, rather than travellers having to file a complaint when their flight is delayed or cancelled, City News Ottawa reports.
David Rheault, Air Canada’s vice-president of government and community relations, called on the government to invest more of the taxes and fees it collects from airlines into industry infrastructure so that it can cope more effectively with weather disruptions, the CBC reports.
“This money should be reinvested into the air transport infrastructure,” Rheault told the committee. “We need to move forward with digitization, facility upgrades and other improvements.”
Massive snowstorms in Vancouver a couple days before Christmas forced the cancellation of flights in and out of Vancouver International Airport. Sunwing cancelled several flights from Mexico to Vancouver, leaving hundreds of Canadians stranded at a hotel over the holidays, often unsure when they’d be able to fly home.
There also were significant delays and flight cancellations in Ontario and Quebec around Christmas. VIA Rail also is being called onto the carpet to explain how it handled a pre-Christmas storm that left passengers stranded on a train in southern Ontario for 18 hours just prior to Christmas.
Both Via Rail and Sunwing have issued formal apologies, but politicians are seeking more answers.
Meanwhile, Vancouver Airport officials say they’re taking action to try to mitigate against future weather problems.
“YVR is undertaking an enhanced after-action review that will bring together input from airlines, partners, suppliers, and employees.” airport officials said in a statement. “We have engaged KPMG and global aviation planning and advisory firm, Arup, to assist in this review. YVR will also be engaging the travelling public to hear directly about their experiences and suggestions for improvement relating to information and support during the December travel disruption. Both processes will commence next week. Further information will be available on YVR.ca.
“In addition, we have implemented initial measures to help ensure a similar situation does not occur while the review is ongoing. These measures include greater communication and coordination with airlines around gating, towing, and communication with passengers.”
AIRLINES HOPE FAA ISSUES BEHIND THEM
Airlines across North America are praying that yesterday’s FAA issues won’t crop up again today.
A “system outage” at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights, including six WestJet flights and an undetermined number of Air Canada routes.
CNN reports that the FAA “briefly halted all domestic flight departures across the US Wednesday morning, lifting the ground stop around 9 a.m. ET after it restored a system that provides pilots with pre-flight safety notices.”
The network said FlightAware, which tracks delays and cancellations, showed more than 9,500 flights to, from and within the United States as being delayed as of 6 p.m. ET, and more than 1,300 flights cancelled.
“We are continuing a thorough review to determine the root cause of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system outage,” the FAA said on its Twitter feed today. “Our preliminary work has traced the outage to a damaged database file. At this time, there is no evidence of a cyber attack.
“We are working diligently to further pinpoint the causes of this issue and take all needed steps to prevent this kind of disruption from happening again,” they said.
PORTER AIRLINES SHUTTERS MUSKOKA FLIGHTS, ANNOUNCES NEW IN-AIR PARTNERS
Porter Airlines has cancelled its flights between Toronto Island Airport and Muskoka.
James Murphy, CEO of RTO12, the tourism organization that represents the Muskoka region, said it was a business decision on Porter’s part.
Murphy said that two years of collecting data from all the Porter flights, of marketing the route locally, domestically and internationally, and of the RTO12 team being on the ground at the airport for every arrival and departure have resulted in an incredible wealth of data that will allow for an even more detailed and compelling business case to share with additional carriers.
“At the time we partnered with Porter, we were an untested airport and destination for the aviation industry, and our business case was built on projections,” he said. “Now we have solid data and experience for building scheduled service at the airport…”
Meanwhile, Porter is unveiling the details of its updated premium in-flight service offering, with an emphasis on partnering with high-quality Canadian brands.
Porter’s existing signature in-flight service – PorterClassic – featuring complimentary beer and wine served in glassware, along with a selection of premium snacks, will continue to be part of the journey on both the De Havilland Dash 8-400 and Porter’s new Embraer E195-E2 aircraft, which are expected to take flight early next month. This includes:
* A rotating selection of Beau’s Brewing Co. (Vankleek Hill, Ont.) craft beer, as well as Jackson-Triggs (Niagara Peninsula, Ont.) Pinot Grigio and Cabernet Sauvignon.
* Tea from Sloane Fine Tea Merchants (Toronto) and freshly brewed arabica bean Balzac’s Coffee Roasters (Stratford, Ont.).
* An assortment of premium snacks, including Hardbite (Surrey, B.C.) All Natural Kettle Cooked Chips, Good For You Desserts (Toronto) chocolate chip banana bread, naturSource (Saint-Laurent, Que.) Olio d’Oliva and our Tamari® Almonds, Three Farmers (Saskatoon, Sask.) zesty cheddar roasted fava beans, and Cookie It Up (Aurora, Ont.) milk chocolate shortbread.
Toronto sign at the CN Tower. JIM BYERS PHOTO
BLOOMBERG TOP DESTINATIONS FOR 2023 INCLUDES TORONTO, SAN FRANCISCO EDINBURGH and NEW ZEALAND
Bloomberg’s top 21 destinations for 2023 include a nod to Toronto.
“Canada’s largest city continues to be one of North America’s most ever-changing—and fastest-growing—metropolises,” their top destination story reads. The story goes on to cite news hotels, such as the Nobu Hotel and Residences that are expected to open downtown this year, and the city’s dining scene.
Also singled out for special 2023 love were Edinburgh, New Zealand (totally agree), Saint Lucia, San Francisco (hear hear), Madrid, Milan and Kyushu, Japan.
Speaking of New Zealand, Air New Zealand’s New Years Sale has been extended to January 16 at 11:59 p.m. PST for Canada due to popular demand.
The airline is welcoming Canadians back to New Zealand for just $1,675 CAD (Vancouver to Auckland) round trip, with the option to add on a visit to Sydney for an additional $200 CAD per person. Premium Economy is priced at $3,975 and Business Premier Class at $6,875.
Please note, Air New Zealand’s website will reflect the extension of the sale at midnight EST January 13.
North Hatley, Quebec is a gorgeous town in the Eastern Townships. – JIM BYERS PHOTO
NEW YORK TIMES TOP 52 FOR 2023 HIGHLIGHTS AUSTRALIA, SWITZERLAND, PALM SPRINGS AND EASTERN TOWNSHIPS OF QUEBEC
Another prestigious publication, The New York Times, has come out with its list of top 52 destinations in the world for 2023. Among the places singled out: the Eastern Townships of Quebec; Auckland, New Zealand; Kilmartin Glen, Scotland; Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia; Palm Springs, California; Lausanne, Switzerland; Martinique, Tucson, Arizona; and Kangaroo Island, Australia.
I adore the Eastern Townships, which has lovely, small inns like Auberge West Brome and terrific food. Here’s a link to a story I wrote recently for the Toronto Star. I also love visiting Auckland and Palm Springs, where I recently visited for a Zoomer magazine story on an historical tour of Frank Sinatra’s old neighbourhood.
Lausanne is my fave city in Switzerland, with a gorgeous setting on Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), and I visit Palm Springs every chance I get for desert views, great hotels, fine dining and canyon hikes.
