Originally Posted by
quantumofforce
So are you saying it is AC fault for being under staffed? Several hours waiting to get off the plane is unacceptable.
It seems that you are the only person who understands that the passengers sat on the plane for approx 2 1/2 hours because there were no AC personnel to staff the arrival gate.
Originally Posted by
Wpgjetse
I have had this happen to me on many airlines/airports. Sometimes it is not about staff and more about de-icing. if they go back to gate, they loss there spot, most likely causing the flight to cancel.
Your story is nice, but has no relevance. Arrivals are not deiced. This was an arrival, not a departure.
Originally Posted by
canadiancow
I've seen well over 3 GAs working in YQB simultaneously.
For some reason your vision brings to mind Tatoo from Fantasy Island shouting. Boss, dee planze, dee planze. Were you wearing a tight little white suit and bowtie?
Originally Posted by
SparseFlyer
I was in IST with TK waiting to depart an AM flight. Massive snowstorm that would make snowstorms in Canada jealous. 4h on the tarmac. No one complained. The second there was a break, planes started to fly down the de-ice queue and straight to take-off. By the time we did the final turn, the blizzard restarted. Had we not been all in our seats ready to pushback, we would've probably not have made it, and who knows what happens at that point.
Lovely tale but perhaps the pax remained silent because they were terrified. Considering TK's safety record, I expect many people would have preferred not to be on a TK flight when there was a massive snowstorm.
In any case, this AC delay was in respect to the inability of AC to unload its pax at a gate because it did not have sufficient staff to support the arrival.
Originally Posted by
yyznomad
I don't understand why this is necessarily newsworthy... I've been subjected to longer waits on a Tarmac, for various reasons, and those never made the news...
Well, your delays were related to departure and traffic or weather conditions weren't they? This delay was due to AC not having properly staffed its operations and more importantly, not having a contingency plan.
How many times does it have to be pointed out that Air Canada has ineffective contingency planning? It should have had an agreement with another airline at the airport or the airport itself that in the event of a crisis that personnel could be borrowed to supplement or to assist Air Canada personnel at a gate.