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Just after 10pm, when he was about to attempt an irregular sleep, an Air Canada text message arrived: Flight canceled due to crew limitations
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June 10, 2022 • 9 hours ago • 7 minutes reading • 294 comments Travelers queue at Toronto’s Pearson Airport Terminal 1, May 9, 2022. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / National Post
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Ryan Whitney Airport Horror Story was on social media Monday and I watched his video of exasperation with some trepidation.
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The former NHL player and current podcast host and liquor merchant had attempted to fly from Edmonton to Boston via Toronto, but was caught in Lester B. Pearson Airport lineups that lasted many hours, which caused him to lose connections. He declared the airport “the worst place in the world” and also “hell on earth”.
He had an 8 a.m. flight from Pearson booked for Tuesday. How soon should I get there to face giant lines? Five in the morning? Four? I settled for an arrival at 5am, because anything before makes it feel like you woke up in the middle of the night instead of a morning.
Last Monday at 22:00, when he was about to attempt an irregular sleep, an Air Canada text message arrived: Flight canceled due to crew limitations.
Although it seems that the crew has stuck to their will, it is a term to describe one of the problems of domino effect that have increased in the midst of increasing delays in air travel in this country, with Pearson in his epicenter. If a crew works after a set number of hours, which happens as delays accumulate at either end of a flight, they will not be able to continue their next scheduled trip. Therefore, the crew is limited.
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And so began what would be a series of relatively minor, yet utterly revealing, struggles, as he tried to complete what was supposed to be a quick journey. It’s a window into the profane mess that air travel is at the moment, a situation that has developed for a number of reasons and has generated a really remarkable amount of finger-pointing between agencies.
Entering Customs at Pearson Terminal 1 on Wednesday night, a monitor had been installed: “We apologize for the wait,” he said. The message stated that the federal government’s ongoing health protocols were to blame for the long, winding line of passengers attempting to cross border controls.
It’s more complicated than that. But the lesson for now, and most likely during the summer, is that there are no short flights. Especially if it starts, ends or even crosses the hive of misery that is Pearson.
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Moments after receiving this message about the cancellation of the flight, another arrived from Air Canada. The airline had re-booked me automatically. (Hooray!) It was now scheduled for a 9 a.m. flight to Baltimore that went first to Montreal. (Hmm.) And he did a 3.5-hour stopover. (Wait What?)
This is one of the problems that the series of cascading delays has exposed. Airline automated systems are not big thinkers. Why would I want to fight the Pearson rush in the early hours of the morning just to end up spending half the day at the Montreal terminal? A mid-afternoon flight from Toronto, which would take me to Baltimore a little later, but without the extra leg, made more sense.
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That was the idea, anyway. Arriving at Pearson on Tuesday at noon, prepared for chaos, I sailed through the projection and customs. The problems that have been cited as major factors amid the airport madness of recent weeks, the lack of personnel in security checks and border controls, are at their worst during peak periods such as the early hours of the morning. The process in quiet moments can be downright serene.
But after a long wait at the door, another Air Canada text: The flight was delayed due to airport limitations. Another text, announcing another delay for the same reason, came shortly after. Interestingly, the plane was sitting in the doorway, ready to roll. Our pilot would finally explain that the limitations were in fact at the other end, where Baltimore-Washington International needed to free us a door. We left.
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Duncan Dee, a former Air Canada executive, posted a series of social media posts this week that perfectly explained the struggles of airlines.
Delays in security and customs inspections of several hours cause subsequent delays throughout the process (check-in, baggage, boarding at the door), because airlines have staff in a way that assumes an efficient system. Once a key has been thrown into the works, everything falls apart and passengers learn about terms such as crew restrictions, airport limitations and customs.
Since then, Dee has been making rounds in the media arguing that Trudeau’s ongoing pandemic policies, which include mandatory vaccination and testing to hang on to his ArriveCAN app, have exacerbated the problems. caused by the pandemic-related staff shortage increasing significantly. the time it takes to process a passenger at border control.
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More passengers are waiting in line at Toronto’s Pearson Airport Terminal 1 on May 9, 2022. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / National Post
Industry groups and opposition politicians have called on Ottawa to remove travel restrictions, as has been done in most Western nations, to help speed things up. The government has responded by saying it has hired more security checks. With air travel still well below pre-pandemic levels and the approaching summer season, that doesn’t seem like much of a solution.
Wednesday was time to go home and start the fun again.
Despite posting my vaccination test on both ArriveCAN and Air Canada, I was unable to obtain a boarding pass because the airline said I needed it at the airport. I went early in case there were queues. And in fact, Air Canada was billing flights to both Montreal and Toronto, and everyone had to use an agent because they wanted to see evidence that we had successfully browsed the ArriveCAN app.
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An airport employee told me this was a relatively new thing: since there had been a customs group in Toronto, now they wanted someone to make sure everything was filled properly at the end of the departure.
Adding to the confusion is that passengers who were just passing through Pearson on their way to another country still had to fill out an ArriveCAN form, with all the necessary documentation. Passengers were stunned when they arrived at the party when he asked for the address where they were staying in Canada: “But I’m not staying!” They were told to enter Pearson’s address. An employee wrote it down with red marker on a piece of paper and hung it on the check-in desk.
There was more confusion when passengers learned that Pearson is in Mississauga, which is a difficult city to write at first and while reading a handmade sign. A fellow who was going to Thailand via Montreal was in front of me in line. An American who is in the United States Navy was baffled by all the paperwork while taking a picture of his passport while he was put in his luggage. “Canada, man,” he said.
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What else can you say? ‘Do you have a good career?’
It took more than an hour to cross that line. My real time at the counter was maybe 30 seconds.
Once at the door it became clear that there were problems. Flights to Montreal and Toronto used the same door, so we weren’t going anywhere until they cleared up. Finally a text message arrived: Delay due to late arrival of the plane. Forty-three minutes later, another text said we were leaving in 25 minutes, which was weird because the Montreal plane was still sitting there and no one was there. After another 32 minutes, another delay.
The flight from Montreal sat there. There was talk of a system reset, the equivalent of the plane disconnecting and reconnecting. Toronto passengers were told we were moving the doors and got off at the terminal.
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After two more announced delays, the last of which was still “under investigation,” we boarded and took off, not two hours late. As we approached Pearson, passengers around me asked me about their connections to Toronto.
“When is the boarding?”
“Now.”
Flight attendants responded with the verbal equivalent of emoji with clenched teeth. What else can you say? “Do you have a good career?”
A passenger rests for a while in Toronto’s Pearson Airport Terminal 1 on May 9, 2022. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / National Post
The pilot entered and …