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
flight delays
Members of a House of Commons committee plan to meet Monday to discuss a request for a study of Canadian flight cancellations and airport delays. CTV News reports that members of the House of Commons Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Committee are scheduled to meet on Monday. “Throughout this the height of our travel season, the government has refused to listen to advocates, front-line workers and ordinary Canadians to make common-sense improvements to our country’s airports and scrap their continued measures leading to further delays,” said Conservative transport critic and committee vice-chair Melissa Lantsman, in an email to CTVNews.ca on Friday. Read more
The Trudeau government says it’s continuing to work at easing crowding and other problems at Canadian airports, and that senior officials met with Toronto Pearson Airport management this week. It doesn’t appear to be helping, as cancellations and delays remain about what they were a week ago. FlightAware.com reports 33 flights were cancelled at Pearson on Wednesday, roughly 5% of all flights. Another 242 departing flights were delayed, about 40%. It wasn’t a lot better at Montreal Trudeau, where seven flights (2%) were cancelled and 123 flights (39%) were delayed. Here’s a statement they issued today: The Minister of Transport, Read more
It looked like things might be improving at Canadian airports, but Sunday was not at all good. A glance at Flight Aware stats shows Toronto Pearson on Sunday (July 31) had 25 cancelled outbound flights (4%) and 238 delays (40%). Last week’s stats were generally around 38% or 39% delays for outbound Pearson flights. It was pretty much the same on Sunday at Montreal Trudeau, which had eight cancellations (2%) but 119 delays (40%). In Calgary, seven outbound flights were cancelled (2%) and 96 delayed (33%). For Edmonton, there were five cancellations (3%) and 36 delays (25%). Toronto Pearson has 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
