So What's Up With Air Canada Service to Thunder Bay Now?

Air Canada’s new three times a day with larger planes Rouge service from Toronto Pearson to Thunder Bay seems to have become quite erratic over the last few weeks based on some of the arrival times.  The new service began May 1^st with a ceremonial greeting at the Thunder Bay airport using water cannon.   However, the anecdotal evidence from conversations with a few people suggests that there have some significant delays of up two hours and sometimes more in recent weeks.  This is likely not due to adjustment to a new schedule as it has now been in place for several months.  One also suspects it is not an official part of some type of preliminary celebration of Canada’s new air passenger protection laws.

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 14^th, AC8547 was supposed to arrive at 11:02pm but did not show up until one and a half hours later. On Monday July 15^th, the last flight of the day 8547 was only about a half hour late.   On Tuesday July 16^th, 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 17^th, 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.

Porter Airlines Says it's Sorry But Is it Enough?

Well, we had quite the flight delay with Porter Airlines yesterday.  Our flight to Billy Bishop from Thunder Bay was supposed to depart at 11:10 am and when all was said and done it did not leave until nearly 6:00 pm meaning that from start to finish our trip to Hamilton in the end took twelve hours.  We have traveled to Europe in less.  Indeed, you can drive to Hamilton from Thunder Bay in about 14 hours straight if you put your mind to it.  Still, compared to others on the packed flight with small children or who were traveling on tighter schedules to attend weddings or were unable to go back to their house and spend some time for the extended wait – we were fortunate.  And Porter has demonstrated its concern and sympathy and very quickly emailed us with a 100-dollar voucher each (it came in at 4:52am this morning) to be used on future bookings with Porter.  Based on the length of the delay and the amount of the compensation, it seems that Porter already complies with the new proposed Ontario minimum wage at least when it comes to the value of passenger time.

In the end the delay was for a “mechanical issue” and as one of the flight attendants who took the elevator with us at the end of the flight remarked it is better to be safe than sorry.  I agree.  Still, this is not the first mechanical delay with Porter on a flight to or from Thunder Bay that I or other members of my family have encountered.  Indeed, over the last year there have now been about four such issues involving us with the most recent delay the longest.  In each case, the weather was excellent and the plane on the tarmac and then suddenly…the dreaded delay due to a mechanical issue.  However, if you are in Thunder Bay it is even more ominous because Porter Airlines must fly in the mechanic from Toronto on its next available flight.

Why Porter airlines and the other two airlines in Thunder Bay (Air Canada and Westjet) who also fly nothing but Q400s there could not get together to chip in and maintain one mechanic on a standby contract to service their planes is beyond me.  Perhaps the recent announcement from Porter that they are making Thunder Bay a crew base will also mean they are going to keep a mechanic and parts on hand.  I hope that is the case because I like flying Porter and the convenient access to downtown Toronto.

At the same time, I think Porter has had an awful lot of “mechanical issues” and having so many really is ultimately their fault. I think they have an aging stock of aircraft given that the planned beefing up with the C-Series fell through and they now need to renew their aircraft stock in a very competitive airline world.  It's tough I know.  Still, here is the thing.  You can’t keep telling people they have a delay due to mechanical issues.  It has happened often enough to me and my family now that inevitably I am starting to wonder if an airline with so many mechanical issues is the one I should keep selecting for my travel.  I am already booked on a few more flights with Porter for the next couple of months but after that maybe I should shop around more.  After all, better to be safe than sorry.