With Canadian airlines increasingly under the microscope – from travellers to the travel trade and government officials to the media – as chaotic airport scenes continue to play out across the country, Air Canada has stepped up to communicate its feelings on the situation, and more importantly, explain what it is doing about it.
The airline’s statements follow a recent meeting of senior Air Canada representatives, along with other key participants in the Canadian aviation industry, with Canada’s federal transport minister.
“At Air Canada, we know every trip is important, even more so today as many are flying for the first time in years to see loved ones or take an eagerly anticipated holiday (and) we are determined not to disappoint,” said airline president and CEO Michael Rousseau.
He added that the airline was “long preparing” for a travel surge this summer, including coordinating with industry partners, but added, “As all businesses worldwide are finding, restarting after COVID is an extremely complex task…”
At the same time, he said Air Canada deeply appreciates its customers’ understanding and patience during these “often-frustrating times.”
Each day, Air Canada says it currently operates more than 1,000 flights and regularly carries more than 120,000 people –the vast majority of which are successfully completed, it says. Nevertheless, the airline adds that it has “recommitted” to doing event better.
To that end, Air Canada says it has been prudently restoring its schedule as it recovers from the effects of COVID-19 and this summer plans to operate below its pre-pandemic capacity as the industry stabilizes.
This includes cutting more than 15% of its scheduled flights in July and August, the airline announced Wednesday night – a move that will see 154 flights per day on average dropped from the airline’s schedule, which is already operating at 80% of pre-pandemic levels. The flights link mainly to its Toronto and Montreal hubs and are all on domestic or Canada-US routes.
“This was not an easy decision, as it will result in additional flight cancellations that will have a negative impact on some customers,” said Rousseau in a statement. “But doing this in advance allows affected customers to take time to make other arrangements in an orderly manner, rather than have their travel disrupted shortly before or during their journey, with few alternatives available.”
The slimmed-down schedule is marked mainly by frequency reductions that affect evening and late-night flights on smaller planes. International flights remain unaffected except for some timing changes to reduce flying at peak times and even out passenger flow.
At the same time, a number of other measures have been introduced to help to assist customers ease the current travel burden:
• New Self-Service Re-accommodation tools will allow customers who have schedule changes, delays, or cancellations to request a refund if eligible or rebook their itineraries in a few minutes through its mobile app or website. This includes getting up to 20 alternative flight options (based on availability), choosing to fly to nearby airports instead, and the ability to search for flights in a three-day window. It will be available for customers regardless of how and where they booked their tickets
• A goodwill policy has been implemented for passengers travelling via Toronto-Pearson to allow them to voluntarily increase their connection time at no cost for more flexibility when travelling. This policy can be applied within 48 hours of the original travel time
• A second new policy will allow customers free, same-day stand-by options for earlier flights within Canada/Transborder regardless of fare brand or booking class
• The airline maintains an updated travel readiness page on aircanada.com with the latest information and advice for those preparing to travel, including information about COVID-19 requirements. Customers are advised to consult this page before travelling.
In Airports
• In addition to the recall of virtually all available employees, more than 2,000 front-line airport employees (and 774 more people to work in call centres) have been hired and extensively trained over the last six months, with additional overtime and ongoing hiring, including drawing upon recently retired employees with special expertise
• Employees have been reassigned from other bases to augment specific airports, including the cross-utilization of cargo employees to assist with airport passenger operations
• The airline has redeployed aircraft from its Jetz charter fleet to move delayed baggage, which has increased in large part due to air transport processing and infrastructure issues outside its control
• The airline is working closely with airport authorities, government, and third-party agencies to enhance and expedite the processing of customers throughout their journey
• Additional ground equipment has been acquired to improve airport operations.
Network/Schedule
• Minimum Connection Times for flights from international and transborder destinations connecting to domestic destinations have been increased by 30 minutes for new bookings in Toronto and Montreal, giving customers (and their baggage) additional time to connect
• The schedule has been refined to reduce peak times at the Toronto-Pearson and Montreal-Trudeau airports by retiming and cancelling certain flights, or reducing frequencies, where protection is available to customers the same day. This will conserve resources and reduce stress on third-party service providers by smoothing passenger flows and be more convenient for customers
• Aircraft gating at airports has been reconfigured. For example, widebody aircraft in Montreal travelling internationally and to the US are being more conveniently located to achieve efficiencies during peak hours for added operational flexibility.
In addition, Air Canada says it will continue evaluating other measures to enhance the functioning and stability of the air transport system and work with its partners on further improvements.