Air Canada Warns of Potential Flight Disruptions Following Technical Malfunction

Air Canada advises travelers to be prepared for further flight disruptions as the airline works towards restoring normal service following a technical malfunction on Thursday. According to the carrier’s daily travel outlook, flights may be affected at nine of Canada’s busiest airports, including Pearson in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary.

The IT system of Air Canada is now stable, but the “rollover effects” of Thursday’s outage, which resulted in over 500 delayed or canceled flights (over three-quarters of its total), may lead to additional delays on Friday. In an emailed statement, Air Canada mentioned that while their communicator system is functioning normally, some flights may experience delays in the morning as they reposition aircraft and crew.

Passengers are advised to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport, and Air Canada’s flexible travel policy remains in effect, allowing customers to change their travel plans without incurring any charges.

The disruption originated from the airline’s communication system used to interact with aircraft and monitor performance, which Air Canada has been upgrading. On May 25, the system experienced a separate issue, resulting in a one-hour grounding of planes and delays for nearly half of the airline’s flights that day.

As of around 11:30 a.m. EDT on Friday, FlightAware.com reported that 89 Air Canada flights, comprising 17 percent of the airline’s scheduled load, were delayed, along with 32 cancellations. Additionally, 40 Air Canada Rouge flights faced delays, and 19 were canceled.