Air Canada and WestJet have both announced they will be cutting several hundred flights per day throughout the busy summer travel season ahead. .Air Canada announced it will reduce its flights by 15% through the summer citing "customer service shortfalls" as the reason, while WestJet will cut its flight capacity by 25%..Air Canada President Michael Rousseau released a statement on Wednesday indicating the airline is reducing its capacity even though COVID-19 restrictions on travel have been lifted and more Canadians look to book their summer travel. .“Regrettably, things are not business-as-usual in our industry, globally, and this is affecting our operations and our ability to serve you with our normal standards of care." said Rousseau in the statement..An Air Canada spokesperson, in a statement to the Western Standard, confirmed the company will be reducing its schedule by an average of 154 flights per day throughout July and August, when typically the air carrier would be operating close to 1,000 flights per day..Flights to Toronto and Montreal airports are the routes most affected by these changes, primarily impacting evening and late-night flights. .Other routes the airline will be temporarily suspending include flights between Montreal and Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Kelowna, and Toronto and Fort McMurray. Most international flights will not be affected, with the exception of some timing adjustments. .“To bring about the level of operational stability we need, with reluctance, we are now making meaningful reductions to our schedule in July and August in order to reduce passenger volumes and flows to a level we believe the air transport system can accommodate,” the statement said..“We are convinced these changes will bring about the improvements we have targeted,” said Rousseau, indicating he is aware the changes will have a "negative impact on some customers." .“But to set expectations, it should also be understood the real benefits of this action will take time and be felt only gradually as the industry regains the reliability and robustness it had attained prior to the pandemic.”.WestJet released a statement on Thursday saying the air carrier has "proactively reduced capacity to ensure we can deliver a stable operation." .The Calgary-based airline said it will cut its operations — usually seeing more than 700 flights per day — down to approximately 530 flights per day. ."As we prepare for the busiest travel weekend since pre-pandemic, we have been working closely with our airport partners, third-party providers and the federal government to mitigate challenges," said WestJet in the statement. ."We will continue to be transparent throughout this process and will continue advocate for the stabilization of services along with the permanent removal of outdated health measures to provide greater confidence and certainty to our guests and employees.".Staff shortages are considered responsible for the cancelling of more than half of all flights coming in and out of many of Canada's major airports including Montréal-Trudeau Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport..Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told reporters at a Wednesday press conference "these are unacceptable issues."."They know they need to add more resources and they are working on that and we are offering our support to address these issues," he said.
