Shortage of air traffic controllers causing delays, cancellations in Canadian airports
CBC
Canada's federal transport minister says he's pressuring the corporation that oversees the country's air traffic controllers to find solutions to staffing woes affecting passenger flights.
"I am having regular conversations with the CEO of Nav Canada, including one this week to keep asking him for an update on the status of their staffing operations" said Omar Alghabra.
Nav Canada, the corporation that oversees Canada's air traffic controllers, admits some summer flight delays have been caused by personnel shortages.
"We do certainly acknowledge the fact that we have had some staffing-related challenges," said Marie-Pier Berman, Nav Canada's vice-president and chief of operations.
The union representing air traffic controllers in British Columbia has been sounding the alarm on staffing since 2021.
Berman said Nav Canada is training more than 400 new employees now and that the organization hopes to increase that number.
Unlike in the United States, there is no publicly available data that breaks down why or how many flights are delayed, but the president of the Canadian Airports Council says the number of delays caused by a lack of air traffic controllers has been noteworthy.
"Staffing shortages have impacted our air carrier flight schedules and airspace management from time to time and in major regions of the country," said Monette Pasher. "We have seen this most acutely in the B.C. mainland airspace."
Post-pandemic air travel in Canada has been marked by challenges, both because of a surge in demand, and because of labour shortages throughout the industry, many of which are at least partially attributable to pandemic layoffs.
"This summer we've seen a variety of run-of-the-mill delays that travellers are frankly very used to … thunderstorms, weather delays, issues related to congestion," said Duncan Dee, an aviation consultant and the former COO of Air Canada.
"What makes this summer particularly different with regard to delays is the fact that we've seen a tremendous number of delays related to shortages of air traffic controllers."
Dee says he's tracked an increase in this type of delay dating back to last summer, and notes they've become more frequent since March.
In 2020, Nav Canada announced it was cutting more than 720 jobs, representing about 14 per cent of its workforce. It also terminated its training program during the pandemic.
P.E.I. native Matthew Gillis, a mechanical engineer, had moved to two different cities for on-the-job air traffic controller training, then felt left in the lurch when that training was cancelled due to COVID-19.
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