Her flight from Toronto to Winnipeg had been delayed several times and then, shortly after midnight, was cancelled. Sherefa says Air Canada staff did not offer hotel accommodations for the night and instead distributed yoga mats to stranded travelers. Sherefa says she slept that night on one of the mats on the floor of a women’s nursing home at the airport. “It was very scary, but also a new experience that I don’t think anyone should have to go through,” he said.
Sherefa is just one of thousands of air passengers caught up in the travel chaos plaguing Canada’s major airports this summer. As COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in the spring, a sudden surge in travel led to massive delays and cancellations and airport congestion. Fatima Sherafa of Winnipeg holds up the small yoga mat she was given to sleep on at Pearson. (Kevin Nepitabo/CBC) On Friday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told the House of Commons transport committee that COVID-19 and labor shortages in the airline industry were to blame and that, with the government’s help, the travel chaos was being cleared. “We are seeing significant improvements in the last two months,” he said. But the chaos is far from over. Toronto’s Pearson Airport, which had the most flight delays in the world for most of the summer, has dropped to second place, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. And, since May, more than 7,000 disgruntled travelers have flooded the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) with complaints about flight cancellations. The ongoing problems have raised questions about whether the government is doing enough to fix the problem and whether it should have done more before the chaos began. “The federal government needs to think about why this happened?” said Walid Hejazi, associate professor of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “We are one of the richest countries in the world. It is completely unnecessary.” WATCHES | The Minister of Transport hides from the chaos at the airport:

The federal transport minister looked into the summer of chaos at the airport

Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra expressed confusion from members of a parliamentary committee today as to why the government has not done more to ease months of airport chaos facing Canadian travelers.

What went wrong?

As in many countries, Canada’s travel woes began when demand picked up in the spring and many previously laid-off aviation workers did not return — causing staff shortages. However, Canada gained international attention this summer by topping the charts for flight delays. According to FlightAware, from May to July, Pearson had the highest delay rate among the world’s 100 busiest airports, with Montreal’s Trudeau Airport coming in second. During this period, 53 percent of flights departing from Pearson and 46 percent departing from Trudeau arrived at their destination more than 15 minutes late. Alghabra said Canada’s airports and airlines faced a steeper challenge compared to other countries because the travel industry here essentially ground to a halt during the pandemic. “The hole they’re coming out of was deeper,” he said. Alghabra says Ottawa has been quick to address the problem. “We have taken action from the beginning and we will continue to do so.” Tim Perry, a WestJet pilot and president of the Canadian arm of the Air Line Pilots Association, says the government should have addressed the underlying problems sooner. (CBC) But Tim Perry, a WestJet pilot and president of the Airline Pilots Association of Canada, says the government has been slow to act. Perry says he warned the transportation commission in January 2021 — more than a year before the increase in travel — that Ottawa, airports and airlines needed to come up with a plan. “There was no comprehensive coordination or restart plan for aviation,” he said. “A lot of what we see today was predicted back then. And I don’t like to say ‘I told you so,’ but I told you so.”

It gets better

Alghabra also said Friday that, with the government’s help, the situation at Canada’s airports is improving. He said measures such as hiring 1,700 screening officers and moving random testing off-site helped reduce congestion. The latest data from FlightAware also shows that the situation is improving — somewhat. From August 10 to August 17, 44.1 percent of flights departing from Pearson were delayed, making it the No. 2 spot worldwide. Montreal airport ranked seventh with 39.3 percent of flights delayed. Under federal rules, airlines must pay compensation — up to $1,000 — only if a flight delay or cancellation is within an airline’s control and not required for safety reasons. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press) But the union representing 15,000 baggage handlers, screening officers and airline engineers says labor shortages remain a problem. Dave Flowers, president of District 140 of the International Union of Mechanical and Aerospace Workers, says several Canadian airlines or their third-party contractors are currently trying to hire thousands of ground crew workers at the country’s major airports. But Flowers says the jobs are hard to fill because the wages, which range from $16.60 to $21 an hour, aren’t competitive enough in a tight labor market. Flowers warns that if seats aren’t filled soon, travelers should prepare for more chaos. “If they don’t fix the problem before the peak of the Christmas season … you’re going to see this problem come right back.”

Customer complaints

Alghabra was asked on Friday about what the government is doing to address the numerous complaints from passengers that they are being unfairly denied compensation by their airline. Under federal rules, airlines must pay compensation — up to $1,000 — only if a flight delay or cancellation is within an airline’s control and not required for safety reasons. Air carriers must also cover accommodation costs for flight interruptions under their control. Alghabra said the CTA is responsible for resolving passenger complaints and that the government has given the transportation regulator an additional $11 million to deal with the recent flood of complaints. This cash injection was first announced in the April 2022 federal budget. Alghabra also said it was “unacceptable to see travelers sleeping on airport floors” due to delays or cancellations. However, he did not announce any government action to prevent a repeat. Meanwhile, Sherefa, the passenger, said she hopes the government will come up with a plan. “Why [anyone] do I have to sleep overnight in an airport just because a multi-billion dollar company can’t provide a hotel?” he said.