09/02/12, 20:26:47 EST

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Airline glitch strands travellers

thestar.com

'The lesson here is if you get your boarding pass on the Web, you bypass traditional airport functions'

On her way to the airport, Carolyn Stroud knew in her gut that she should turn her car around and go straight back home.
The news on the radio was bad enough: Air Canada flights were delayed because of a system-wide computer glitch. But she didn’t realize how grim the situation was until she reached Pearson International Airport and saw thousands of frustrated travellers lined up in long, snaking lineups throughout Terminal One.

“When I got here and saw the TV crews, I thought it’s either a slow news day or it’s really, really bad,” recalled Stroud, adding she should’ve listened to her instincts because it turned out the scene at the country’s largest airport was, in fact, “really, really bad.”

Problems at the country’s national airline started around 4 a.m., when there was a mass communications breakdown between the reservation system and all Air Canada computer systems in airports, said John Segaert, Air Canada’s general manager for the Toronto airport.

The result, he said, was that staff could not print bag tags or boarding passes for a few hours, causing a major backup that resulted in cancellations and delays on about three dozen flights. Shortly after 7 a.m., part of the problem had been resolved, enabling counter staff to begin issuing tags and passes. And by 9 a.m., the electronic kiosks were up and running again, allowing passengers to check themselves in.

Peter Fitzpatrick, Air Canada spokesperson for central Canada, said they didn’t have a tally on how many passengers worldwide were affected and how many flights were delayed, but operations in Toronto were most affected. On a regular day, up to 50,000 Air Canada and Jazz passengers pass through Pearson International, the country’s busiest airport.

Although the glitch was fixed by mid-morning, the backlog was so great, particularly on flights bound for the United States, that some passengers purchased tickets on U.S. airlines and others missed flights because they were stuck in line. By about 2:30 p.m. operations at Terminal One were back to normal.

“The lesson here is if you get your boarding pass on the Web, you bypass traditional airport functions,” said Segaert, as airline agents nearby fielded questions from a gaggle of angry travellers. “If you have carry-on, you go right through.”

The lesson was cold comfort for Stroud, who had an online boarding pass, but was forced to stand in line for about five hours because she had to check her luggage.

“It’s amazing they had no contingency plan,” said the Toronto woman, who was headed to Phoenix, Arizona, for a pre-paid weekend conference on alternative healing.

“This is very disorganized. ..... They’re lucky we’re Canadians because we’ve been very polite.”

But her manners were tested when she realized that because of the long wait she had missed her flight, which had been delayed 90 minutes and then departed without any warning from airline agents.

Passengers on a few of the early morning flights were pulled from lineups by agents so they wouldn’t miss their flights, but it was a consideration that wasn’t extended to those on most flights.

“People are going to trash Air Canada, just give it a few more minutes,” said Stroud, who works in marketing and sales, after moving to another lineup - this one for passengers who missed their flights and needed to rebook.

Frustrations in that lineup grew as stranded passengers stared in disbelief at a long counter with 16 computer screens but only six agents. Emotions neared a breaking point around 1 p.m. when the number of agents dwindled to two because some had gone to lunch.

“This is disgusting,” piped up one woman who is originally from New York but now lives in Calgary. “It all comes down to communication and they haven’t communicated anything with us.”

“Canadians are so shockingly nice. If this were the U.S., there’d be a big scene,” said the woman, adding she herself would have caused a scene, but “I don’t want to be Tasered.”

Standing nearby, Melanie Ayer of Toronto sighed heavily, adding: “I feel like I’m in that movie where Tom Hanks lives in an airport.”

The 24-year-old student, who was travelling to Savannah, Georgia, had arrived at the airport around 7 a.m. for her flight, but missed it because she was in line and wasn’t told her flight was departing.

She tried using Air Canada’s “courtesy phone” to rebook the flight, but said the agents were less than courteous and gave up after being put on hold for more than 15 minutes.

After standing for about six hours in four different lineups, she finally re-booked her flight for the afternoon with staff at the counter.

“I’m pretty pissed off,” said Ayer. “But I feel really happy that I finally get to go.”

Another person who also got to go was Stroud, who managed to secure herself a spot on an evening flight.

“Finally,” she said, after getting off the phone with an airline agent. “Looks like I’m going back home because there’s no way I’m waiting here.”

 Printable Version  | published Nov 18, 2007