CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said the Calgary-based WestJet made a series of proactive schedule reductions between March and May in anticipation of the logistical problems that have led to the long lineups, snarled connections and cancelled flights experienced by travellers at Canadian airports in recent weeks.
WestJet, for example, which hit a pandemic low of just 4,000 employees in 2020, has built its head count back up to 10,000, but that’s still nearly 30 per cent lower than the 14,000 staffers it had in 2019. According to analytics firm Data Wazo, 54 per cent of domestic flights to Canada’s four largest airports were either delayed or cancelled over the past week. Hardest hit was Toronto’s Pearson airport, with more than 700 flights delayed and 15 per cent cancelled.
“It can still happen that we have to cancel flights at short notice, as happened over the last couple of weeks as well,” he said. “But this should be to a limited extent.” “We have the advantage that we have the majority of our capacity in the western part of Canada, and the western part of Canada is less affected by these operational challenges,” he said.Article contentEarlier this year, aviation industry officials had blamed COVID-19 protocols, such as Canada’s random testing requirement for international arrivals, for contributing to the bottlenecks at airports.
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