Officials with Vancouver International Airport are promising new real-time weather monitoring equipment, gate protocols and better communication after releasing a review of the travel chaos caused by snow last December.
The report says severe winter weather over seven of the busiest days of the year led to 1,300 flight cancellations and other disruptions that affected more than 180,000 passengers.
The report says two dozen aircraft with passengers aboard waited up to 11 hours on the tarmac because there were no gates available, while passengers were given inaccurate information and communication from the airport authority was inadequate.
It concludes the problems did not have a single cause, but demand exceeded processing capacity due to winter weather conditions, prompting a cycle of delays, cancellations, and congestion.
Metro Vancouver was hit with several significant snowfalls between Dec. 18 and Dec. 23, leading to widespread airline cancellations and delays.
The airport authority is promising improvements, including better weather monitoring and baggage-tracking equipment, new gate protocols so passengers can deplane within 30 minutes of landing and better training for staff to improve passenger supports.
“I am not going to sugar-coat it. It was not our finest hour,” airport CEO Tamara Vrooman says in a letter included in the report. “Our safety promise was kept. Our customer service commitment was not.”
The review, which also took into account direct feedback from over 1,500 passengers and members of the public identified 25 actions that the airport says will be addressed in a $40-million action plan.
“While the review confirms our safety promise was kept, it shows that our customer service commitment was not,” said Vancouver Airport Authority CEO Tamara Vrooman. “Passengers clearly told us that, while they recognize aviation is a complex ecosystem of different partners and players, they want YVR to take a leading role in providing more information, better access to front-line staff, and other improvements in times of extreme travel disruption – this action plan provides our roadmap for doing just that.”
The review highlights both the changing realities of passenger and aircraft traffic post-COVID as well as the impacts of climate change and more extreme weather events, which puts additional strain on airside services including aprons, gates, and ground handling.
“While these services perform well during regular operations, the systems and processes our airport community has historically relied on must be made more resilient and adaptable for more frequent and extreme weather disruptions,” says the report.
The five key focus areas, with a total of 25 supporting actions, outlined in the review include:
• Enhance winter and irregular operations – Installation of new real-time weather monitoring equipment, new gate protocols to ensure arriving aircraft can deplane passengers within 30 minutes of taxiing off the runway, additional winter weather equipment and de-icing fluid storage capacity to meet the new realities of sustained, extreme weather events.
• Enhance cross-team collaboration – Additional information sharing across different airport partners as well as establishing a permanent team from across the Airport Authority and partners to enhance decision-making and improve passenger focus.
• Accelerate investments in technology and data – Better prioritization of aircraft on the airfield as well as an improved ability to track delayed baggage through real-time technology and data including a new digital apron monitoring tool.
• Enhance in-terminal passenger supports – More staff will be trained to directly support travellers using better, up-to-date information throughout the terminal 24-7. Improved digital communications directly to passengers in the terminal about resources available, including accessibility services.
• Enhance communications to passengers and public – YVR will commit to sharing more information more often and make better use of its website and leverage stakeholders, partners, and other organizations to get people the updates they need in a more reliable and consistent way. Regular public reporting on YVR’s on-time performance, baggage performance, security screening times.
Vrooman says the airport has already started to implement many of the actions.