Less than 52 per cent of Air Canada’s 36,017 flights last month arrived on time, a new report by Cirium has found.
The aviation analytics company ranked the 10 most punctual major North American airlines in July. Air Canada finished in last place, while WestJet ranked seventh with just under 62 per cent of its 17,405 reaching their destinations on time.
Alaska Airlines took first place with 82 per cent of its 36,960 flights arriving on schedule.
Air Canada would not provide an interview for this story.
In an emailed statement, Air Canada attributed its ranking to high demand for air travel, flights at near-full capacity, and air traffic control staffing shortages that have led to cancellations and delays.
It also pointed the finger at weather.
“The weather this summer has been unusual, particularly in the U.S., where we are the foreign carrier that operates the most flights, so we are more affected than other Canadian airlines,” wrote a member of the media relations team.
“To give you an idea, in July 2023 we had 26 days of significant weather events that disrupted our operation, compared to 19 in July 2019.”
Air Canada said it understands delays are “disappointing” and does its best to avoid them.
WestJet also declined an interview and sent an emailed statement citing weather and third-party delays.
“While the saying remains true that we cannot control the weather, WestJet continues to advocate for a service framework of shared accountability across all entities that contribute to Canada’s vital aviation ecosystem,” wrote media relations strategist Madison Kruger.
“We believe the best path forward is one that holds all entities in the ecosystem to the same standard that airlines are held to.”
Global News has reached out to Transport Canada for comment on this story.
In April, the federal Liberals tabled legislation that would increase the maximum fine for Air Passenger Protection Regulations violations tenfold to $250,000 and place the regulatory cost of complaints on carriers’ shoulders. It further demands airlines institute a process to deal with claims and respond to complaints with a decision within 30 days, and closes of a loophole that has allowed airlines to avoid compensating passengers for delayed luggage, though not for lost luggage.
The public consultation process on regulations for the proposed amendments closed Thursday.
Gábor Lukács, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group, said flight timeliness is a “complex problem,” as airlines do rely on contractors and subcontractors in order to operate. Both a “carrot and a stick” are needed to improve performance, he added.
“Ultimately, airlines have to face consequences at the bottom line so that they will start mounting meaningful pressure, substantial pressure on their partners to start delivering on time,” Lukács said, calling Canada’s 2019 passenger protection regulations “laughable.”
This month, his organization, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, and University of Ottawa associate law professor Marina Pavlović submitted recommendations to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) for improving those regulations by bringing them in line with Europe’s.
That means narrowing the standard of “extraordinary circumstances” to exclude crew shortages, maintenance or safety issues “short of terrorism or recalls of actual fleet equipment,” carrier labour disruptions, known airport or operational issues, and omissions of staff and third-party contractors.
The group also recommended tightening the refund deadline from 30 days to seven and implementing single rules for entitlement to a refund, meals and accommodations regardless of the cause of flight disruption and how much advance notice was given.
In an emailed statement, the CTA confirmed it had received the report.
“We will be carefully considering all of the input received during this consultation period before publishing draft amended regulations in the fall,” wrote Terry Kuny of the CTA media team.
“Following this publication, there will be another consultation period within which we will also welcome submissions from interested stakeholders.”
Lukács recognized the more ambitious federal regulations currently on the table for passenger protection, but questioned how much they would be used once in effect, given reticence to award fines at the current maximum.
“I’m not aware of any case where a maximum $25,000 fine was issued for a single violation to an airline and that’s where the problem starts,” he explained.
“There is no appetite, no courage, no determination to actually start issuing hefty fines to airlines. It’s really a vicious circle because airlines have this sense of safety … they act in a particular way that generates a lot of complaints. Those complaints overwhelm the system.”
John Gradek, a lecturer at McGill University’s School of Continuing Studies for Aerospace and Aviation, said poor Canadian airline performance is not a “new phenomenon” as companies struggle to recover from a pandemic crash in profits.
“Air Canada has had some problems in terms of making sure its operational capabilities match the flight schedules that they put in the marketplace,” he told Global News.
“Really, it is not part of their primary objective to keep on-time performance as a key driver of performance for the summer.”
Both Air Canada and WestJet said they had implemented measures to reduce the impact of delays.
Air Canada’s include schedule adjustments during traffic peaks and partnerships with other carriers for “additional lift,” such as PAL in Eastern Canada and Omni for Manchester flights.
WestJet said it has improved its efficiency in its boarding process and is working more closely with handling partners on the ground.
Editor’s Note: This is a corrected story. A previous version misspelled John Gradek’s last name.