TORONTO — Air Canada has issued an operations update following recent winter storms and a Delta Air Lines plane crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Much of eastern Canada was hit with back-to-back winter storms this past week, causing flight and train cancellations and dumping as much as 40 centimetres of snow. On Feb. 17, a Delta Air Lines jet, which departed from Minneapolis carrying 76 passengers and four crew, flipped on its roof while landing at Toronto Pearson, injuring at least 18 onboard.

Following the crash of Delta Flight 4819, Air Canada issued the following update on its operations:

“Yesterday was a difficult day, and we were greatly concerned by the incident involving Delta Air Lines. Our thoughts remain with that flight’s customers and crew,” said Craig Landry, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Air Canada.

“Unfortunately, this incident added to weather events over the past few days that have been extremely challenging for airlines in Eastern Canada. We recognize that travel disruptions are inconvenient for customers, but safety must always be our top priority and sometimes ensuring safe travel requires slowing down and adapting to conditions. I thank our employees for their hard work and dedication, including their willingness to work overtime and extra shifts, to take care of our customers,” said Mr. Landry.

“As a result of the recent storm and the incident at Toronto Pearson, there have been extensive delays and Air Canada has cancelled approximately 1,290 flights over the past six days. Despite this, we successfully and safely moved more than 650,000 customers during that time. We are currently restoring our service, adding extra flights and capacity where possible. However, the necessary and ongoing reductions in the number of take-offs and landings permitted at our global hub in Toronto is slowing the speed of recovery. We anticipate it may take several more days, depending on the weather, to return to fully normal operations. We appreciate our customers’ understanding during this time.”

SELF-SERVICE TOOLS

Air Canada offers extensive self-service tools on www.aircanada.com and on its Air Canada app for customers looking to cancel, change or make other changes to bookings. These should be used whenever possible. Customers can also use these tools to obtain the latest status on their flights.

CONTACT CENTRES

Due to the disruptions, contact centres are currently experiencing very high volumes resulting in extended hold times. Customers not scheduled to travel within 48 hours are advised to call back closer their planned departures. Given the nature of the disruption, with many flight delays and cancellations, calls are taking longer than normal as agents work with customers to find and book travel alternatives, which is also adding to wait times. Agents are working extended shifts and on overtime, doing their best to serve customers and work through the backlog as quickly as possible.

Customers who booked their travel through a travel agent, including online travel agencies, should contact their original booking source for assistance in rebooking. Customers who booked directly through aircanada.com or through Air Canada’s contact centres can use the call-back feature to avoid waiting, however call back wait times are elevated.

SCHEDULE

Prior to the storm, Air Canada reduced its schedule in anticipation of the weather limiting the number of flights permitted to take off and land at major airports. For example, at Toronto Pearson approximately 44 flights are normally allowed to take-off each hour, but with recent conditions the number of movements has been restricted to as few as 16 per hour. This has been done for safety reasons, including to give the airport time to remove snow and ice. As a result of the storm and the aircraft incident, Air Canada had to further remove flights from its already reduced schedule. These are now being restored as conditions allow.