After a series of nerve-fraying flight delays and cancellations,
Landing at
Bertschi, 31, had gate-checked her stroller in order to retrieve it the moment she stepped off the plane, but was informed instead it would show up in baggage claim before being directed instead to customer service.
"So we trek it up to the third floor. They told us, 'No, we can't do anything about it. You have to go downstairs.'"
She was told the same thing downstairs, and the process repeated itself, as Bertschi hauled a large carry-on bag and an eight-month-old, she said in a phone interview.
At
"He just kind of stared at me and was like, 'Well, I don't know what to do because we don't have strollers,'" Bertschi recalled, describing
"My toddler is overtired and running around and I'm trying to chase him," she said. "I was crying because I'm so overwhelmed."
The elusive stroller, which didn't leave
"It was very, very close," she said. "I will not fly
"We are currently reviewing her case and we will be following up with the customer directly," spokesman
Travellers, experts and now
The federal government has been scrambling to respond to scenes of endless lines, flight delays and daily turmoil at airports — particularly at Pearson — a problem the aviation industry has blamed on a shortage of federal security and customs officers at the
"Airlines have a duty as well. We’re hearing some stories about luggage issues and flights cancelling," Transport Minister
"We’re making sure that the airlines keep up their end of the bargain.”
“The delays at
"The airlines basically have shot themselves in the foot by really throwing a lot more capacity at the world than they have resources to be able to handle," he said.
"They're being very aggressive in the marketplace, getting lots of traffic — airplanes are often at 90 per cent load factor — and don't have any idle assets hanging around just in case things go wrong. And then that's a formula for disaster when things do start to go wrong."
Passengers say they receive last-minute emails informing them of repeated delays, aircraft changes or rebookings scheduled days after the original departure time. Reasons cited run the gamut from absent pilots and occupied baggage handlers to unplanned mechanical maintenance.
Kinks in one part of the air travel pipeline can snarl others, with overflowing customs areas stopping flight crews from disembarking, for example, or a lack of airline customer service agents exacerbating delays.
The federal airport security authority has hired more than 900 screeners since April, though many remain in training, Alghabra said.
Not all industry watchers agree with the transport minister's take on more than two months of travel turbulence.
"Airlines do have to take responsibility, particularly for taking care of their customers. But he’s being disingenuous in trying to shift blame," said former Air Canada chief operating officer
"No airline anywhere on the planet can staff themselves or procure enough spare aircraft to make up for what is amounting to almost 90 days of delays caused by government service failures in
Flights held on the tarmac because of bulging customs halls can leave crew out of "duty time" — the regulatory and contractual limits on hours worked — prompting personnel gaps. Meanwhile a flight missed due to a long security queue or delayed connecting flight may take hours to rebook, since agents slated to cover the customer service counter are still working to board passengers on a different delayed plane. Similar snags confront baggage handlers.
"It becomes very, very blurred," Dee said.
This report by
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— With a file from
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