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
travel chaos
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
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 is once again marketing itself in the U.S. as a great travel destination. The city has done okay with domestic travel, but U.S. visitors are key to Toronto’s tourism, as foreign visitors tend to stay longer and spend more than domestic visitors. The campaign is called “You Gotta See What We See,” and uses “enthusiastic, passionate Torontonians with stories we believe will resonate with our US audiences specifically.” Sounds like a smart plan to me. Many would-be travellers love to check out Tik Tok and Instagram pages before they book a trip, so why not use those influencers? Geographically, Read more
