The worst appears to be over for southern Ontario, but frigid temperatures and strong winds are still limiting travel for many. Roads are treacherous, and VIA Rail also is having trouble with trains in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor. CP24 reports passengers on a train heading from Ottawa to Toronto have been stuck on board a stalled train car for 17 hours. Airports appear to be recovering in Ontario and Quebec as the snow dissipates. “The last several days have been very challenging for the airlines and they’ve been proactively cancelling and delaying flights,” said Tori Gass, a spokesperson for Toronto Read more
cancelled flights
The Canadian Minister of Transport, Omar Alghabra, will have to testify about Canada’s continuing airport congestion and other travel problems in the next ten days or so. The House of Commons Transport Committee held an emergency meeting on Monday to debate Conservative transport critic Melissa Lantsman’s request to have the minister, a key member of the Justin Trudeau Cabinet, appear “for no fewer than two hours and answer questions about flight delays and cancellations at Toronto Pearson and other Canadian airports. The Lantsman motion was approved unanimously. Alghabra also has been asked to talk about the government’s unpopular ArriveCAN app, Read more
Toronto Pearson continues to experience some of the highest rates of delayed flights around the world, and the critics are pouncing. But we’re also seeing problems at the Toronto City Centre/Island Airport and at Montreal Trudeau. The airline tracking website Flight Aware sparked a worldwide condemnation of Canada’s busiest airport when it reported that Pearson’s delay rate for the period from May 26 to July 9 was 52.5%. That was the highest in the world, and Pearson was the only airport on the planet with a cancellation rate higher than 50%. Things started to get better, but progress seems to Read more
Two powerful U.S. Senators are demanding better protection for airline passengers hit by cancellations and delays. Amid a spike in the number of flight cancellations and delays, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) this week sent a letter urging the U.S. Department of Transportation to fully utilize its statutory authority to protect consumers, promote competition in the airline industry, and hold airlines accountable for delayed and canceled flights. In the letter, the lawmakers raised concerns about Americans’ air travel experiences, which have grown steadily worse over the past year, and laid out specific actions DOT can take Read more
Air Canada last week announced it was trimming roughly 15% of its flights as it deals with unprecedented demand and airport issues. Their website now has a list of the changes they’ve made, including flights between Toronto and several major Canadian cities, such as Ottawa, Calgary Charlottetown and Vancouver. The list also includes changes in flights to Miami, San Francisco and other U.S. cities. Here’s a copy of what I found posted on their site on Sunday night (July 3). This week, Air Canada announced changes to its summer schedule to support unprecedented and unforeseen strains on our organization. International flights Read more
