'A brutal summer': Air Canada paying the price for airport chaos
Shares have fallen 23% in three months for second biggest decline in the Bloomberg Americas Airlines Index
Author of the article:
Article content
Air Canada’s hope for a strong recovery in 2022 has been foiled by chaos at Canada’s biggest airports.
Travellers are back in big numbers as the summer vacation season kicks off. But Toronto’s Pearson International Airport has descended into scenes of long lines and a sea of luggage, and the nation’s largest airline is paying the price.
About 65 per cent of Air Canada flights tracked by FlightAware.com were delayed on Friday and Saturday, again making it one of the worst-performing airlines in the aviation website’s daily rankings. More than half of Pearson departures — for all airlines — took off late on those two days, the site said. Nearly half of departures from Montreal’s Trudeau International were delayed on Saturday.
Like other large carriers, Air Canada has cut back its summer schedule, cancelling about 9,000 flights to relieve pressure and improve operations. Investors have been unimpressed: the shares have fallen 23 per cent in three months for the second biggest decline in the Bloomberg Americas Airlines Index. Air Canada is the worst performer in that index since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
Travel bottlenecks are a problem globally as airlines and airports struggle to hire and train enough people to handle a wave of passengers who want to fly after two years of COVID restrictions. British Airways last week scrapped another 10,300 flights; Deutsche Lufthansa AG, EasyJet Plc, Delta Air Lines Inc. and other carriers have made similar moves. It’s all leading to a lot of finger-pointing as airlines, airports and governments seek to shift blame.
Air Canada says it has 32,000 employees compared with 33,000 prior to the pandemic, yet is operating only 80 per cent of its June 2019 schedule. Despite that, it still faces a shortage of baggage handlers and other staff, said Cowen Inc. analyst Helane Becker.
It’s been a long process of hiring workers after Canada kept COVID-19 travel restrictions in place longer than the U.S. did, forcing Air Canada and other employers to constrain their capacity growth last year.
“It just isn’t that easy to turn things around,” Becker said. “There is a fair amount of new employees, so there’s a learning curve.” She thinks that delays and cancellations could continue until the middle of next year.
Ahmad Rawanduzy’s daughter arrived in Toronto from Frankfurt, Germany, through an Air Canada connection in Montreal on July 1 and could not find her luggage. Three days later, they received a text message saying that her bags were at Pearson airport. Upon arrival, they were informed that the bag was still in Montreal without a tag.
Rawanduzy, who lives in a city about 45 minutes away from the airport, said the process is frustrating because of “the travelling chaos, the price of gas, and paying for parking for a few hours at a time.”
The delays have heaped pressure on the federal government, which has been criticized for being too slow to handle passport applications and hire security staff to deal with passengers. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement Friday that nearly 1,200 screening officers have been hired since April and asserted that things are getting better.
At Pearson, 79 per cent of travellers got through security lines within 15 minutes during the week of June 27, Alghabra’s office said in a statement Friday. Rachel Bertone, a spokesperson for Greater Toronto Airports Authority, said there have been “improvements both on the arrivals and departures sides.”
Rising cases of COVID-19 are exacerbating the problem. Short-notice schedule changes sometimes happen because members of the flight crew are forced to isolate with virus symptoms, a positive test or because they came into contact with an infected individual, Air Canada said in an email to a customer that was seen by Bloomberg.
Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said the airline is working with airports to streamline operations and improve the movement of baggage. Reductions to the summer schedule will also help alleviate pressure on airport gating, customs and air traffic control, he said.
“The system has never been stressed like this before,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aerospace consulting firm Aerodynamic Advisory LLC. “I think it’s going to be a brutal summer.”
If you liked this story, sign up for more in the FP Energy newsletter.
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.