How an air traffic controller shortage is impacting Canadian airports
Global News
In the past month alone, NAV Canada has announced temporary service interruptions in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, all due fully or in part to staffing constraints.
A shortage of air traffic controllers has led to delays and cancellations at airports across Canada in recent weeks, and the staffing shortfall is not expected to be fully resolved anytime soon.
In the past month alone, NAV Canada — the organization that runs and operates Canada’s civil air navigation system — has announced temporary service interruptions at airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, all due fully or in part to staffing constraints.
Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal saw multiple impacts during that time frame.
“This does create a really frustrating situation for passengers — candidly, we share that frustration,” Vancouver International Airport communications director Stephen Smart told Global News Tuesday night amid the latest round of delays, which lasted for hours.
Nearly 100 flights were cancelled on Tuesday and 195 were delayed amid the Vancouver staffing shortage, which NAV Canada said was resolved early Wednesday morning.
However, the incident created a backlog of delays that took additional days to clear.
Smart explained that, in the event of an unexpected last-minute staffing shortage at air traffic control towers, safety protocols require NAV Canada to reduce the volume of aircraft coming into the airport.
“When we dial that back, it means fewer arrivals on time,” he said. “As people I think can appreciate, those planes then are not able to turn around and depart on time on their next flight.
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