Jagboi

I think it's a swipe at Porter, who's branding is a raccoon.

Symmetre

I should clarify ... AC's OTP has been particularly brutal for a couple of years now.

Plumber

There have always been some issues, but I agree it has gotten worse.

And again, I believe it is firmly tied to AC's (probably Ben Smith's when he was running things) desire to get a higher-than-average utilization (hours/day) from the aircraft to increase profits.... The example I had the other day has the schedule allowing 1 hr 25 min to turn a full 298 pax plane and it is just not enough time.....Invariably it runs late.

CZAMFlyer

A 90-minute turn is certainly doable, and to a high standard. However, the lack of ground staff in many roles results in the frequent delays. There are often aircraft waiting several minutes to taxi the final few metres into the gate upon arrival as they wait for marshalers busy pushing back a nearby flight for example. The small delays then snowball throughout the day. I think AC among others is announcing a great deal of new growth in certain locations, but not adequately adjusting their compensation rates or working conditions to attract the new staff it needs to enable their ambitions.

FlyerTalker70

Kind of agree with you here. If Canadian airports operated like their Japanese brethren we're looking at 15 minutes to deplane a 777 and another 15 minutes to board a 777 which would give cleaners and everyone else an hour to get things going so to speak. Unfortunately, this is Canada and I doubt we'll ever find the same efficiency as the Japanese (it's a cultural thing). Another marked difference between Canadian FAs and others is that on other airlines the cabin crew is more actively cleaning up the aircraft prior to landing to make the cleaning people's jobs more easy. Perhaps that is not stipulated in their contract with AC but I suspect if they were more proactive you would rarely see cleaning delays.

Safe Travels,

James

CZAMFlyer

Because remote stand operations were specifically timed, I know how long it takes to offload passengers into a fleet of buses (deplaning was not timed at regular bridgeheads). This past summer, they regularly deplaned a JAL B788 on a remote stand in an average of 8 minutes at YVR. Korean (B789) took a minute or two longer. Air Canada declined to use remote stands upon arrival. It may be a cultural thing, but it's not an airport thing.

KenHamer

Then why are you?

FlyerTalker70

I'm not defending them, all I'm saying is its silly to compare them to WestJet. If you want to compare them with any other airline outside Canada - fine. My beef is with the Canadian aviation industry and how god awful they all are from airport ops that force long delays to the airlines themselves. If you look at any OTP report you'll clearly see that the issue isn't with AC specifically but rather the hubs generally - YYZ, YVR, YYC to name but a few. I challenge anyone on the forum to find a single major Canadian airport whose OTP ranking is below 500 - I doubt you'll find it!

-James

rankourabu

As a direct result of their major tennant's OTP constantly being <60%.

FlyerTalker70

Possibly, although without seeing the number of movements by airline it's difficult to fully assess who contributes to what. For instance, WS has a very small presence at YUL compared to AC. However, in the prairies and West Coast I suspect WS has a much bigger presence than AC. Perhaps Prairie airports have that clean cool aspen air that allows for better OTP compared to the urban centres of Canada

In any event, it's not like WS has OTP worthy of writing home about either. The whole situation sucks compared to even the States.

Safe Travels,

James

CZAMFlyer

If not defending, then deflecting.

The issue of AC's poor OTP lies solely with AC. Isolated events such as snowstorms or baggage system meltdowns may exacerbate a few bad days per year, but in my experience, it's Air Canada that seems to be always getting in the way of the other players on the field when blocking aprons, overstaying their times on gates etc.

Plumber

CZAMFlyer

Yes, I agree, for the reasons I listed above. It's an achievable standard that largely isn't being achieved (by Air Canada), although company-designated high-priority flights such as 034 regularly manage to complete the YVR stop in the alloted 90 minutes or less, and same for 036 that turns into 548 or 300.

Plumber

I agree there are some flights that can turn around in that time....but there is no consistency, thus poor OTP. Partly goes back to your comment earlier about wanting huge growth, but not staffing correctly (and/or perhaps compensating accordingly) to achieve such growth.

secretalcoholic