The Canada Day long weekend was not a moment for Canada to shine - in the aviation sector, anyway. In the first weekend of JUL, Canada's airlines and airports were the best at being the worst performers in the world.
Canada’s Biggest Airlines Have Worst On-Time Performance in North America - and even the World
According to tracking service FlightAware, Canadian airlines and airports took top spots in flight delays over the JUL long weekend, more than nearly any others around the world.
Air Canada took the number one spot on 02 and 03JUL with more than two-thirds of its flights, 717 in total, landed late. At 67 per cent of its flights delayed on 03JUL, Air Canada took "first" place of worst performers, while 3 airlines tied for second at 53 per cent - Greek regional carrier Olympic Air and 2 Air Canada affiliates, Jazz Aviation and Air Canada Rouge.
On 02JUL, WestJet and Swoop placed third and fourth at 55 per cent.
Data from Cirium shows that it wasn't just a long weekend 'blip'. For 30 days ending on 03JUL, Canada’s two biggest airlines had the worst on-time performance of the 10 big North American carriers.
Air Canada’s planes arrived as scheduled 38 per cent of the time, the worst performance of the major airlines on the continent, according to the data. WestJet came in second-last place, with flights only arriving as scheduled 54 per cent of the time.
Experts say that the poor showing from Canadian airlines signals the struggle for the domestic industry to prepare for the return of travel.
Only One Airport on Earth had More Delays than YYZ This Weekend
Travel chaos at YYZ reached new lows this weekend, with reports of crowds, long line ups, and trouble at baggage claim. More than 53 per cent of flights scheduled to take off on 03JUL from YYZ were delayed, according to the plane tracking data company Flight Aware.
Only one airport in the entire world had more delays: the ironically-named CAN in China, with 63 per cent of all flights departing on 03JUL cancelled. The two airports (YYZ and CAN) also took the top spots for worst arrival delays, with 46 per cent and 63 per cent of arriving flights delayed, respectively.
YUL placed sixth on 03JUL with 43 per cent of all flights delayed.
