The snowstorms that iced many Canadians out of their holiday travel plans, continue to leave airline and railway executives and politicians on the hot seat. New data from the Angus Reid Institute finds Canadians blame airlines and rail companies almost as much as they do the weather for cancelled flights and delayed trains over Christmas and New Years. The Angus Reid poll found that 70% of Canadians blame the weather, but that 68% said the problems lie with airlines and rail companies. One-in-three (33%) point the finger at the federal government. A similar number (30%) blame the travellers for putting Read more
flight cancellations
A top Canadian airline executive says he’s opposed to the idea of giving passengers automatic refunds for delayed or cancelled flights. Speaking on CTV’s Question Period today, Andrew Gibbons, WestJet’s vice-president of external affairs says the airline is opposed to what the network called “wall-to-wall federal rules around automatic compensation for passengers in the event of flight delays.” “We don’t think bulk automatic policies are the way to go,” Andrew Gibbons told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday. “We do like to have an individual relationship with our guests.” Some Canadian travel experts have called Read more
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,” Read more
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says normal U.S. air traffic operations are gradually resuming. “Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews,” the FAA said on its Twitter feed. “The ground stop has been lifted.” The FAA suffered a “system outage” over night and, at one point, ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information. The FAA supplies critical information to pilots and Read more
The House of Commons committee that handles transportation issues this week will launch special hearings this week to examine the travel chaos that ruined the holidays for hundreds of Canadians. CTV reports the first hearing will take place on Thursday and is expected to see Transport Minister Omar Alghabra field a series of questions about what transpired and what accountability there will be. Airlines and VIA Rail also are expected to appear at before the committee. Major storms in Vancouver just prior to Christmas forced WestJet and other airlines to cancel a number of flights. Another storm moved into Ontario Read more
