NordsFan

I was at YQB on Friday evening 24FEB from 1820 until about 0300 the next morning.

I was booked on AC8925 YQB-YYZ connecting to AC858 at 2355.

It was pouring rain and the temperature was dropping when I got to YQB. The two earlier YYZ-bound flights AC8919 (1700) and 8923 (1830) were delayed because of weather issues at YYZ.

WS was also having issues with its YQB-YYZ flight.

Instead of going to the lounge I decided to watch the action between gates 28 and 29.

Lots of onward connections to Europe and SCL/EZE so some of the pax decided to postpone departure until the next day and left the airport as it was pretty clear by 1930 that they would not make it to YYZ in time. This opened up some seats on 8919 and 8923 so the GAs put me on STBY on both. My inbound aircraft on 8920 was delayed exYYZ, so my initial flight 8925 was going to be very late.

There were also quite a few folks who had Caribbean departures from YYZ early on Saturday morning.

The YYZ concierges were looking out for me and decided to protect me on Daytripper 868 on Saturday morning at 0840. I made a reservation at a YYZ hotel to play it safe. At 2025 I received an email from AC saying that 8925 was late so I was definitely off 858 and KK on 868.

The YYZ closures and resulting flow controls delayed things further until there was some hope that 8919 and 8923 would depart around 2115. This was pushed to 2200 and then to 2215. The pilots were hanging around the gate area and were answering questions from pax. The GAs made announcements and kept pax up to date.

It should be stated that the YQB station attendants are a relatively young group with many new hires after a CBA adjustment in mid-2016 saw most of the senior agents (AC mainline employees, not QK) leave the company or move to other stations. The GAs working on Friday evening were quite new but I thought they did a decent job in tough conditions, maintaining a pleasant demeanour in English and French when talking with pax and when making announcements.

They also handled some departures to YUL and YGP throughout all of this.

The weather at YQB had degraded considerably by then and we were in the middle of a decent ice storm.

At 2245 or so they announced that 8923 was boarding as a window had opened at YYZ. The GAs said the pilot had taken a full load of fuel so this limited the number of pax to 60 on his DH4.

Shortly thereafter at 2310, they quickly boarded 8919 and I was given 5F with an empty D seat, as so many of the pax had given up and left. Some bumped pax from 8923 boarded and I could hear chit chat that groups had been broken up as a result. Everyone hurried up with boarding and the FAs found room to bring all of the Skycheck bags into the cabin to save some time for the ramp agents.

Somewhere in there AC8730 landed from YUL. WS also canceled its flight but I was onboard so never heard that announcement. At 2330 or so, deicing started for AC8923 at gate 28. It took them a full 50 minutes to clear away the ice. Meanwhile AC8925 also arrived from YYZ.

Were there enough agents working the ramp for marshalling, baggage handling, deicing, etc ? I don’t know, but conditions were not optimal and I’m not sure that more hands would have accomplished much more except perhaps have gotten the arriving pax from 8730 off their plane faster.

One complaint in the La Presse/Le Soleil article is that the 8730 pax were forced to deplane onto the tarmac and walk to the terminal. This is just silly…..at YQB all DH1s and DH3s use stairs and require an 80 foot walk between aircraft and terminal. DH4s usually hook up with a bridge but I have seen a few occasions where stairs and a walk were used instead. It seems that getting a bridge in place was found to be too time-consuming so they popped the door and had people walk inside. I don’t see that as being a problem for someone whose main complaint was being confined for 2 hours on the ground, even if it was raining…we do this at YQB all the time, all year round in all conditions.

I was snoozing in my seat so I lost track of time. The FAs offered water service twice as we waited for the rampies to start deicing 8919. They got over to us around 0030. 8923 had pushed back and was holding for departure. Deicing finshed at 0100 and we also pushed. As the pilots revved up, engine #2 gave off some serious vibrations. Captain did some checks and had the maintenance guys take a quick look for residual ice and then told us we had to pull back to the gate. By then the window of opportunity at YYZ had again closed and both our flight and 8923 were canceled.

Door opened and we went down stairs onto apron for the short walk into the terminal. Yes, it was rainining. It was also 0200. I got my email from AC advising of cancellation of 8919 at 0210.

I bypassed the throng at the AC check-in desks and ran upstairs to Timmy’s to get something to eat. My ride showed up at 0245 and I headed home, as it was clear to me that I would have no chance of getting out early enough on Saturday morning to make 868 at 0840.

On the way, the commercial area at the bottom of Route de l’Aéroport at Hamel/Duplessis was in darkness as a result of a power failure, traffic lights were out and there was lightning to the South.

I was home at 0310 and spoke with the concierges in YYZ. It was impossible to make it up to YYZ for 868 at 0840 so I pulled the plug on this trip. I received my credit note, for the full fare, by email from AC at 0350.

Next morning’s AC8909 at 0500 was cancelled. AC sent an E90 and it got out just after 0900. A few more YYZ flights were canceled or delayed that morning.

My take on things.

24left

@NordsFan

THANKS! for this. Few people who fly get to see all of this in action.
Hope your trip can get rescheduled.
P.S. And I thought of all my late inbound aircraft, getting them groomed and moved over to domestic and then de-icing was challenging.

run&fly

Yes, thanks NordsFan for the detailed "non-trip" report! Yes, the weather was very bad (1 cm of solid ice on my car Saturday morning , power outages, and fallen tree branches all over). I just feel for those passengers who were so close to home and stuck 2.5 h in the Dash-8 on the tarmac.

Transpacificflyer

Folks, this isn't about deicing or the weather delays. There is no dispute that there was inclement weather. Nor is there dispute that there were departure delays of at least 16, 20, 33, 70 and 91 minutes.

With the exception of the 70 minute delay, the overall OTP on Feb, 24 was not too far off from the typical Air Canada performance at the airport. For comparison purposes; According to flightstats, 8730 has an average delay of 41 minutes with a standard deviation of 43.37 minutes. In plain language, the OTP for 8730 is awful.

The over riding fact here is that pax were intentionally kept on the plane after the no fly decision was made. The circumstances that attached were very different than those of the delayed flights. It does not matter that other flights were delayed or that there was a need for deicing. 8730 was not flying and the passengers should have been delivered to their gate in a timely manner. Air Canada failed to do that.

I note the statement;
Were there enough agents working the ramp for marshalling, baggage handling, deicing, etc ? I don’t know, but conditions were not optimal and I’m not sure that more hands would have accomplished much more except perhaps have gotten the arriving pax from 8730 off their plane faster.

Well, yes, the issue is the unloading of the pax and their baggage. The failure of Air Canada to perform this simple task is precisely the problem. The airline has a poor OTP on this flight so there should have been sufficient personnel on hand to ensure that there was staffing during the expected and known delay period. The airline cannot shut down ground operations once the flight leaves the gate. It has to maintain a ground capability until such time as the aircraft passes the turn around point.

This isn't the first time Air Canada has been caught with bare bone staffing. And therein lies the bigger problem. There cannot be a contingency response if there are inadequate personnel on hand. The airline chose to cut its station staffing. It accepts that from time to time there will be screw ups like this and that it's a cost of operations. This is fine for the airline, but screws over the people who paid for transportation.

You Super Elites don't have to deal with the worst of these types of events because there is a concierge to hold your hand, to protect you on the next available flight. For Ma & Pa Kettle, Sal the salesman, Ursula the university student, and all the other regular folk who fly, they are treated poorly by the airline in these types of events. Even a *A Gold customer in J like me has to go line up for an hour plus to get rebooked because the phone lines are unavailable or the online booking tool doesn't work. It is infuriating to be kept on a plane because the airline doesn't have anyone available to unload pax and their baggage.

Not acceptable. Not excusable.