It was a first place finish that no one in the Canadian airline industry wanted, and now one carrier is offering up its own long weekend recap, at least when it comes to cancellations.

As reported yesterday, Canada took an unenviable first place for delays for airlines and airports over this past July long weekend, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.

Air Canada ranked number one in delays on Saturday and Sunday that affected 700+ trips in total, or about two-thirds of its flights, while WestJet and its low-cost subsidiary Swoop placed third and fourth for delays on Saturday. Toronto’s Pearson airport claimed the No. 2 spot Sunday below China’s Guangzhou airport while Montreal placed sixth.

The news came days after Air Canada announced it was cutting some 150 flights per day this month and next.

Yesterday WestJet sent out an update on its operations over the long weekend along with the airline’s current performance as of Monday afternoon.

Here’s a look at the weekend that was, for WestJet …

• Friday, July 1 – 38 cancellations / 575 planned flights
• Saturday, July 2 – 12 cancellations / 498 planned flights
• Sunday, July 3 – Two cancellations for unscheduled maintenance / 586 planned flights

By Monday afternoon, July 5, WestJet was reporting three cancellations for unscheduled maintenance, and 575 planned flights.

And for Tuesday, July 6, WestJet was reporting zero cancellations and 534 planned flights.

Says WestJet: “As publicly stated and as result of consistent and proactive efforts, we have been able to stabilize our operation to prevent reactive cancellations, however, there remains significant operational challenges across the Canadian aviation ecosystem that can fall outside of our control, contributing to delays. Our number one priority is ensuring our guests arrive safely to their destination, as on-time as the current aviation landscape allows for.”

Last Thursday, WestJet posted an update on its summer 2022 operations. The airline is currently scheduled to operate 21% less capacity in July 2022 than in July 2019.

“We have been meticulously planning for summer operations and over the past few months have proactively reduced capacity to ensure we can deliver a stable operation,” says WestJet.

“Our proactive efforts have been foundational to our summer planning and when comparing our current capacity to that of 2019, where we operated more than 700 flights a day, this summer we will operate 25% fewer flights, averaging approximately 530 flights a day.”

Source: Travelweek