Toronto's Pearson airport now 2nd worst in world for delays. Ottawa says travel woes on the mend
CBC
Fatima Sherefa, 17, had a rough night at Toronto's Pearson Airport on Aug. 6.
Her flight from Toronto home to Winnipeg had been delayed several times and then, just after midnight, it was cancelled.
Sherefa says Air Canada staff didn't offer hotel accommodation for the night, and instead passed out yoga mats to stranded travellers.
Sherefa says she slept that night on one of the mats on the floor of a women's nursing room at the airport.
"It was very terrifying, but also a new experience that I don't think anyone should have to go through," she said.
Sherefa is just one of thousands of air passengers caught up in the travel chaos that has plagued Canada's major airports this summer. As COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in the spring, a sudden surge in travel led to mass delays and cancellations, and airport congestion.
On Friday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told the House of Commons transport committee that COVID-19 and a labour shortage within the aviation industry are to blame and that, with the government's help, the travel chaos is dissipating.
"We are seeing significant improvements over 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 only moved into second place, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. And, since May, more than 7,000 disgruntled travellers have flooded the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) with complaints related to flight disruptions.
The ongoing problems have raised questions about whether the government is doing enough to fix the problem, and if it should have done more before the chaos started.
"The federal government needs to think about, why did this happen?" said Walid Hejazi, an associate professor of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.
"We're one of the richest countries in the world. It's completely unnecessary."
As with many countries, Canada's travel problems began when demand surged in the spring and many previously laid-off aviation workers didn't return — causing staffing shortages.
But Canada won international attention this summer by topping the charts for flight delays. According to FlightAware, from May through July, Pearson had the highest rate of delays among the world's 100 busiest airports and Montreal's Trudeau airport came in a close second.
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