The Trudeau government says it’s making progress on passport and airport delays, but it admits there’s a lot of work to do. Federal government ministers put out a statement today saying that it’s hired more than 700 new staff for passport offices and hired 1,800 more security screening officers at airports. It also said it’s decreasing flight delays,cancellations and baggage woes, and that the average wait times at the passport call centre have significantly decreased from a peak of 108 minutes earlier this spring to 24 minutes as of August 21. “With this surge in passport requests and significant delays Read more
airport delays
The flood of delayed and cancelled flights and lost luggage that has marred the resumption of air travel will continue to recede through the rest of the year as hiring and training programs gear up, says Amos Kazzaz, Air Canada’s chief financial officer. In a story in today’s Globe and Mail, Kazzaz said airport disruptions in Canada are improving and are unlikely to extend into the new year, pointing to the reduced numbers of delays, cancellations and baggage complaints in the second week of August. The website flightaware.com reports that only one per cent of Air Canada flights were cancelled Read more
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 Read more
The federal government insists that Canada’s airports are getting much better in terms of delays and cancellations. Government officials put out a release this week saying that, for the week of August 1-7, three per cent of flights planned for Canada’s top four airports were cancelled, compared to 12% over the same period in July. From August 1-7, more than 85% of flights from the top four airports left on time, or within one hour of their scheduled departure. That’s up from 75% for the first week of July. OTHER METRICS Holding of aircraft at Toronto Pearson International Airport * Read more
Passenger activity is way up at Toronto Pearson. It’s not a surprise to anyone who watches the news, but Greater Toronto Area Airport officials today said Passenger activity increased by 8.3 million or 780.4 per cent during the second quarter of 2022. For the first half of the year, passenger activity was up by 12.5 million or 584.1 per cent, when compared to the same periods of 2021. Passenger activity increased given the easing of pandemic-related travel restrictions and pent-up travel demand compared to the same period of 2021. Nevertheless, all measures of operating activity continue to be well below Read more
