After several hours of delay late Tuesday night, Air Canada said its airport systems, check-in and call centres were “beginning to come back online” following a technical problem. But the airline also noted that many travellers could still be faced with delays and cancellations.
Several passengers took to social media Tuesday to report being stranded in cities across Canada and the United States.
The airline tweeted just before 10:30 p.m. ET that it was working to resolve the issue. Several hours later, the airline tweeted that the systems were coming back online.
“We’re still expecting some flight delays and cancellations, but we are working hard to move as many customers as possible this evening and we are putting on additional capacity to transport customers affected tonight on flights tomorrow,” a statement from the airline said.
Robin Smith, a spokesperson for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, said the system was down from approximately 9 p.m. Tuesday to 12:20 a.m. Wednesday.
Smith said the GTAA was temporarily removing restrictions around nighttime flying for Air Canada flights that were delayed by the technical problems.
Even after the statement from Air Canada reporting that systems were starting to come back, many passengers complained on Twitter of ongoing issues with the check-in system and the call centre.
CBC’s Gian-Paolo Mendoza talked to travellers stuck in Vancouver late Tuesday night.
A couple of travellers stuck in the tail end of #YVR lineups had to cancel plans throughout the day and tomorrow morning. @cbcnewsbc @CBCNews pic.twitter.com/pZcr3gEDhL
Ariel Vernon said she was heading to the Interior of B.C., where she’s building a house
“They’re pouring the foundation at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning, so I’m going to miss it.”
Traveller Cartel Cutler said he was forced to cancel and delay business meetings.
“My whole day is shot tomorrow,” he said.
Air Canada urged travellers to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport and apologized for the inconvenience.
At the peak of the system-wide outage, the Toronto airport’s website showed delays of more than two dozen Air Canada flights.
I am in the 7689 flight Boston to Toronto. Cancelled. They are telling us to get out bags and go and try to call tomorrow. What? Who is going to pay for the hotel? Inconveniences? I am a poor graduate student. pic.twitter.com/T6VGOloxtA
Uhhh ohhh @AirCanada …system wide it failure has us all being like
pic.twitter.com/Sc0LW4nTP8
Quick update: Two hours in and no updates from @AirCanada at Pearson. The initial excitement of free pretzels is wearing off and would-be passengers are losing hope. The good news? There are still five boxes of apple juice left on the pretzel cart. More as the story develops… pic.twitter.com/ittUAPIYtQ
from Update Trend News http://bit.ly/2EGGow3
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