Nearly 2,000 Air Canada flights were delayed or canceled over the Canada Day long weekend, according to aviation data company FlightAware.
About half of all flights on the nation’s largest airline — including those of its Air Canada Rouge division and regional partner Jazz Aviation — were affected from Saturday to Monday.
The 1965 flight delays and cancellations contrast with figures from some other Canadian carriers like WestJet, Air Transat and Flair Airlines, which experienced lower levels of disruption.
It is also a slight increase from the previous weekend, when an unforeseen shortage of air traffic controllers at Nav Canada hampered the plans of thousands of people.
Posts and photos of winding queues and crowded terminals at Toronto and Montreal airports have been shared on social media in the past few days as passengers expressed frustration with late takeoffs and service to customers.
Aviation expert John Gradek pointed to bloated flight schedules and dwindling numbers of relief planes as playing a part in the problems, with disruption data showing an increase not unlike the scenes of chaos experienced by airports a year ago, at the start of the post-pandemic recovery.
