Days of waiting, lost luggage, repeated cancellations: passengers describe trying to fly with Air Canada - Action News
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Montreal

Days of waiting, lost luggage, repeated cancellations: passengers describe trying to fly with Air Canada

Even regional flights within Quebec have been affected by the problems with Air Canada. Passengers describe difficult hours, even days, waiting at Trudeau Airport in Montreal.

Airline is cutting dozens of daily flights until end of summer

People sleeping on benches in an airport.
Travellers could be spotted sleeping throughout Trudeau Airport early Wednesday morning. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

Delays at the Trudeau Airport propelled by labour shortages in the aviation industry have made travel for those relying on Quebec's regional airlines nearly impossible.

Vanessa Schneider had planned to fly with her children to visit family in her hometown of Sept-les, Que., last Thursday, but gave up after her Air Canada flight was cancelled four nights in a row.

She's just one of thousands of travellers over recent weeks at the airport who've encountered repeated cancellations and lost luggage as airlines struggle to bounce back after two years of reduced air travel in the pandemic.

"At the airport on the third night, my daughter and I, we cried a bit. My little boy was sad too but he didn't cry. It was hard. It was very, very disappointing," Schneider said.

She's not the only one. She saysshe saw manyother passengers crying at the airport.

"The funny thing is they were offering us a flight this Monday to go Sept-les, but we were [planning on] coming back the next day at noon. So they were offering us a wonderful twelve hours in my hometown," she said. Sept-les isabout 900 kilometres northeast of Montreal, on the St. Lawrence River.

One of her flights was cancelled only 30 minutes before departure. It also took her two days before she could find her luggage after it first went missing last Saturday.

"I'm lucky we're going back at the end of the summer. This time we're with Provincial Airlines (PAL), so hopefully we'll be able to make it," said Schneider, who was able to get a refund for her flight.

Piles of luggage.
Large piles of unclaimed baggage could be spotted at Trudeau airport on Wednesday. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

"I do feel a lot of empathy for the other people who do not have a second opportunity like we do to go back, to go on holiday."

Yoelaine Nol, a travel agent from Sept-Iles, says her agency has been dealing with non-stop calls from frustrated customers.

She's been working in the industry for more than 30 years and says she's never experienced anythinglike this before.

"Air Canada's computer systems aren't working efficiently," Nol said. "People are required to wait up to threehours or more to get a response from them."

Air Canada cutting summer flights

On Wednesday, Air Canada announced it would be cutting dozens of daily flights through July and August to better cope with the labour shortage.

It will cut its schedule by 77 round trips or 154 flights on average, each day. Most include flights through Montreal and Toronto.

A girl gives the thumb down side as she stands beside a large suitcase and her brother.
Vanessa Schneider and her two children never managed to make it to Sept-les, Que. (Submitted by Vanessa Schneider )

"Long processing times at airports and remaining pandemic requirements continue to result in flight delays and in some instances cancellations, and these can have knock-on effects not only for our customers but can also impact our employee resources and operations," a spokesperson for the company said in an email Thursday.

"All these operational constraints have an impact on our regional flights as well."

Connection difficulties

International travelers coming through Trudeau Airport for connecting flights to their destinations have also been struggling.

Laura Stokes was at the airport on Thursdayand slept in a chair after her connecting flight from London, U.K. to Las Vegaswas cancelled the night before.

A woman sits in an airport. She is wearing headphones and holding her phone.
Laura Stokes was coming from London, U.K. and was trying to catch a connecting flight to Las Vegas. (Kate McKenna/CBC)

"I just needed to find a corner where I was alone," she said. "We stood in a line for about three and a half hours. They didn't offer any type of compensation."

The same thing happened to Elena Persiiantsev when she was trying to catch a flight to Toronto on June 20 after coming from Tel Aviv with her four children and two dogs. She decided to spend about $1,300 on a taxi from Montreal to Toronto instead, even though her luggage had gone missing.

"Nothing, they just said 'buy your ticket for another flight,'" she said, saying they also weren't offered any vouchers for hotels, food or transportation.

"I was so tired I didn't take the receipt, I just forgot because it had been 11 hours [on the flight and in the airport], and six hours in the taxi all the night," Persiiantsev said.

By Thursday afternoon, it looked like things were starting to run more smoothly at the airport.

Only one family out of about a dozen seemed to be having significant problems when approached by reporters. They were dealing with a delay after a cancelled flight, and looking to re-book their tickets to Europe.

With files from Sandra Hercegova and Kate McKenna