The U.S. has been plagued by holiday cancellations, but Canada’s two largest airlines say things are much smoother north of the border. Multiple reports out of the United States this weekend point to major cancellation issues, blamed on both staffing shortages and weather issues. The website flightaware.com, which tracks planes around the world, reported 690 cancellations for flights within or into/out of the U.S. on Christmas Eve, followed by 996 on Christmas Day. As of 1 p.m. Eastern Time today, the site was reporting 774 cancellations for flights within or into/out of the U.S. Delta was looking at 131 cancellations Read more
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It wasn’t as bad as calling out the army to deal with a snowfall, but shutting down Pearson Airport on Tuesday was a very bad signal to send out. I understand that it was NOT business as usual on Tuesday. The cold snap was incredible and conditions were appalling for both operations and people. It’s completely understandable that flights would be cancelled, both arriving and departing. And it’s understandable that luggage would be delayed and other issues would pop up. But that doesn’t mean you have to halt the entire shebang and officially declare that you’ve shuttered Canada’s largest airport. Read more
This is from a trip I took to London in the winter of 2009, partly to show how cheap it can be in the off-season… LONDON – Last time I was here it was summer and, oh, about 35 degrees Celsius. Today, when my Air Canada flight touched down after some really heavy turbulence (think monster drops that had even the flight attendants gasping for air) it was 2 degrees. With several inches of snow on the ground. I’m normally not one to go for the cold, but this town is far, far better in the snow than in the Read more
