In terms of
some specifics over the last week: Last Friday (July 12th), my in-laws were on
Air Canada 1512 which was supposed to arrive at 4:17pm and they arrived at almost
7pm. A flight earlier in the day also
had a substantial delay of several hours. On Sunday the 14th, AC8547 was supposed to arrive
at 11:02pm but did not show up until one and a half hours later. On Monday July
15th, the last flight of the day 8547 was only about a half hour
late. On Tuesday July 16th, AC 1510 due
at 10:17 am arrived at 11:40am while AC 1512 due at 4:17pm came in at 6:04pm. On Wednesday July 17th, AC 1512
was again late and at the time of this posting is supposed to be coming in at 6:42 pm.
Not sure
what is responsible for this service deterioration – it does seem like a pretty
bad on-time rate. In a discussion with one of my more well-traveled
sources, we hypothesized that part of the problem seems to be the fact that Rouge also
services international markets and some of these planes coming to Thunder Bay may be part of a chain with origins in the United States and the Caribbean. So, for example, the story is some of these
planes do runs for Rouge like say New Orleans-Toronto and then Toronto-Thunder Bay
or a Caribbean destination to Toronto and then Toronto-Thunder Bay. Small delays on the earlier international leg
then cascade into larger ones on the final leg into Thunder Bay. Another story
is that this may have something to do with the removal of capacity resulting
from the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max8.
Given that Rouge has larger planes – AC 1512 last Friday was a 270
seater – there may be last minute diversions onto other routes going on which complicate the schedule. Air Canada does claim in their messages to
delayed passengers that there have been “scheduling
issues.”
Of course,
who really knows what is going on here other than God and Air Canada. It would
be nice for Air Canada to acknowledge that they are having difficulties getting
to Thunder Bay on time with an explanation why and what they are doing to
address the situation. One expects that
passengers in Thunder Bay will have better luck getting an answer from God.