Air Canada bans pets from travelling in cargo maintain till mid-September

Air Canada has stopped accepting new requests for pets to journey within the baggage compartment of its flights till Sept. 12, the airline mentioned Wednesday, as main airports across the nation face journey delays, flight cancellations and logistical challenges.

Small animals will nonetheless be allowed within the cabins of most flights, offered they can lie down in a provider below the seat in entrance of the passenger.

Bringing a pet within the cabin will price $50 for flights inside Canada and the U.S. (excluding Hawaii), the airline mentioned, and $100 for worldwide flights.

“Attributable to present airport delays, for the protection and luxury of pets, we won’t be accepting new requests for pets travelling within the baggage compartment till Sept. 12, 2022,” Air Canada mentioned through e mail in response to questions from CBC Information.

“All present pet bookings will probably be honoured.

“This doesn’t have an effect on skilled service animals, nor smaller pets travelling within the cabin,” a spokesperson mentioned, including that the airline typically has an embargo on pets within the cargo maintain on choose routes throughout sure occasions of the yr, “notably for locations the place there’s excessive warmth.”

“For patrons reserving flights who want to journey with a pet that can not be within the cabin with them, there are nonetheless a number of protected options out there through Air Canada Cargo,” the airline mentioned. 

The corporate didn’t reply to questions on what circumstances must be in place to ensure that the ban to be rescinded. It additionally didn’t present information on whether or not any pets have been misplaced or sickened throughout latest airport chaos. 

Air Canada presently leads the world in flight delays

The change comes as Air Canada ranked No. 1 on a listing of main world airways with essentially the most flight delays on Tuesday for not less than a fourth day in a row, in accordance with the monitoring service FlightAware.

The monitoring firm mentioned Jazz Aviation, which gives regional service for Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, took second and third place.

WATCH | Canadian airways amongst worst for delays: 

Canadian airways amongst worst performers for delays, latest information exhibits

Canada’s two main airways have had the poorest on-time efficiency of the ten greatest North American airways up to now this summer time, latest information exhibits. Nevertheless, some specialists say U.S. airways skilled delays and disruptions final yr because of a surge in demand for journey, and now, it’s Canada’s flip.

Sixty-five per cent of Air Canada’s flights arrived late on Tuesday, in accordance with FlightAware.

Toronto’s Pearson airport took the highest spot for flight delays by location on Tuesday; it was the one airport on the planet to see greater than half of all departures delayed.

Given the chaos at Canadian airports, Gabor Lukacs, president of the advocacy group Air Passenger Rights, mentioned the transfer to ban pets from the cargo maintain is “definitely unhealthy for passengers, however within the present scenario it type of is sensible.”

Globally, the airline trade has struggled to maintain up with rising journey demand, as airways and airports look to rebuild staffing ranges after hundreds of employees left throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The issue, Lukacs mentioned, is that airways ought to have recognized they had been understaffed, and that Canadian airports lacked the capability to deal with the variety of passengers who had bought tickets, but they did nothing to handle the scenario.

A “highschool scholar with an Excel spreadsheet,” ought to have been in a position to anticipate the issues, based mostly on the variety of tickets offered in comparison with staffing ranges at airports to deal with the visitors, he mentioned.

“Why are they [airlines] promoting tickets for flights they cannot function?” Lukacs mentioned in a telephone interview. “You can’t promote a service you realize for a truth that you just will not be capable to ship. That’s an act of deceiving the general public.”