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The headline should read "Poor Babies". They were on a flight that would have taken 5hrs and 20 mins from YYZ to YYJ and now complain due to the delay they were not fed until after the flight actually took off.  

'It was just too much': Air Canada passenger frustrated after waiting nearly 7 hours on tarmac

An Oakville, Ont., resident on a flight to B.C. says he's frustrated Air Canada didn't clearly give passengers their options while the plane was stuck on the tarmac at Toronto's airport for nearly seven hours. The airline, however, says announcements were made throughout the wait, and crew provided water and snacks several times.

Plane carrying David Kitchen, others was among many delayed at Toronto's Pearson airport due to storm

CBC News · Posted: Feb 13, 2019 8:00 PM ET | Last Updated: an hour ago
 
air-canada.JPG
Air Canada says announcements were made throughout the wait for a flight Tuesday, and the crew provided water and snacks several times. (CBC)
 

An Oakville, Ont., resident on a flight to Victoria for a funeral says he's frustrated Air Canada didn't clearly give passengers their options while the plane was stuck on the tarmac at Toronto's airport for almost seven hours Tuesday night.

"The underlying thing is there was just really no communication," said David Kitchen.

He boarded the plane around 8 p.m. ET on the stormy Tuesday, but it didn't take off until 2:50 a.m. 

Meanwhile, Kitchen said passengers waited on board with limited information and little food as a winter storm wreaked havoc at Pearson International Airport, causing hundreds of cancellations. 

david-kitchen.jpgDavid Kitchen was among passengers stuck in the plane on the tarmac in Toronto for more than six hours Tuesday night, waiting to fly to Victoria. (Submitted by David Kitchen)

The plane Kitchen was on couldn't take off due to icy conditions, and later had to be refuelled because it waited so long, Air Canada says.

After four hours, Kitchen said, passengers were given the chance to get off the plane. But the crew did not provide information about their options — for example, if they would be rebooked or receive a refund — and few people got off, he said.

"Nothing was really explained properly or thoroughly.

"People were definitely wanting to get off the plane, but they couldn't make a decision because they had no information from Air Canada about what was going on."

Kitchen said the captain made announcements during the wait,  but there were long gaps between communication and they only got "little snippets" of information.

'Just too much'

Kitchen also said Air Canada did not serve any meals until the plane departed, although passengers received a bag of nuts and some water after a few hours on the ground.

With the funeral Thursday, Kitchen said he had no choice but to stay on the plane and hope it would eventually take off.

"We were all exhausted, obviously. It was just too much, really."

High winds and freezing rain iced over the entire airport apron, and caused late departures and cancellations, said an Air Canada spokesperson in an email.

Air Canada said announcements were made throughout the wait, and the crew did provide water and snacks several times.

"This flight offers a buy-on board service, so it was not possible to provide everyone a meal," Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said in an email. 

"Also, after returning to the gate, the bridge was attached and customers could deplane, although few did."

toronto-winter-storm-push.jpgToronto was hit with a hefty winter storm on Tuesday. Drivers struggled to cope with snowy conditions and there were multiple airport cancellations. (Mehrdad Nazarahari/CBC)

The plane arrived in Victoria five hours and 36 minutes late, Fitzpatrick said.

Limit of 4 hours on the tarmac

 

According to Canadian standards, airlines should let passengers off the tarmac after 90 minutes, said Gabor Lukacs, founder of advocacy network Air Passenger Rights.

However,  Lukacs said Air Canada changed its terms and conditions last year so it could keep passengers on the tarmac for four hours.

Lukacs said his group launched a complaint against Air Canada with the Canadian Transportation Agency in May.

"Our position is that keeping people on the tarmac for three or four hours is unreasonable and unlawful," he said, calling it a "form of forcible confinement."

The airline has not yet said whether it will offer compensation to customers, including Kitchen. With so many flights cancelled or delayed on Tuesday, Air Canada said its priority has been moving affected customers and restoring its schedule.

It is "just beginning to assess the storm's impact" and will "respond appropriately in due course," the spokesperson said.

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These people should never be allowed on a long haul flight or any flight over 90 minutes just because thats forcible confinement by Gabor's standards.

Last year I was flying YHZ -YYZ  A Simple 2:23 flight.  The flight completed boarding on schedule and pushed back right on time.  We then parked off gate somewhere and sat for 4 hours.  We were updated regularily as the crew got information from SOC as to the status of the ground stop in YYZ.  We were given water several time throughout the wait.

At the 4 hour mark the captain came on the PA and announced that we had hit the limit and would be returning to the gate.  Jst as the engines were started we were told that we had a wheels up time and were good to go.  So just over 6 hours YHZ-YYZ  but not a huge deal because thats still less that flying YYZ-LHR or YHZ-YVR.

People just like to complain.  
If you let 200 people off the plane and then get the call that you need to be wheels up in 15 minutes, it isnt going to happen and you will likely cancel the flight altogether.

If you look out the terminal window and can't see 200 feet, go to the variety store in the terminal and grab a couple of drinks and a snack because you may be a while.

 

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People should be careful what they wish for....re passenger rights.  With congestion/lack of gates at the super hub, the airlines might just as well cancel at the first wiff of a storm. It’s just too much trouble trying to operate.

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Might have given the airline control over the sequence of de-icing but  severe winter weather also involves runway cleaning which reduces the rates of departures and arrivals. 

My last severe winter day departing YYZ put us over our duty day because the ground handler didn’t have a tug with chains. Got stuck pushing back off C35 and couldn’t be moved. By the time the ramp was properly cleaned and received a de-ice time, we couldn’t make it all the way even with four pilots.  

780BAD37-D0EA-4FFF-8028-5DB46BBE1E34.jpeg

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12 hours ago, blues deville said:

Might have given the airline control over the sequence of de-icing but  severe winter weather also involves runway cleaning which reduces the rates of departures and arrivals. 

My last severe winter day departing YYZ put us over our duty day because the ground handler didn’t have a tug with chains. Got stuck pushing back off C35 and couldn’t be moved. By the time the ramp was properly cleaned and received a de-ice time, we couldn’t make it all the way even with four pilots.  

780BAD37-D0EA-4FFF-8028-5DB46BBE1E34.jpeg

I guess I should have said: maybe it is time to insist that YYZ ground handlers are equipped  to handle this situation 

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2 hours ago, Malcolm said:

maybe it is time to equip YYZ to handle this situation ala YYC, YEG, YWG etc ?

A ground handling company failing to have proper equipment for pushing back heavy aircraft in winter conditions is hardly the airport’s fault. 

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5 hours ago, J.O. said:

A ground handling company failing to have proper equipment for pushing back heavy aircraft in winter conditions is hardly the airport’s fault. 

Won’t mention the handlers’s name but they were having issues with manpower around that time. But it was a combination of an unplowed ramp and no chains on the pushback tug. Change one those issues and it wouldn’t have been a problem. YYZ ground control did their best to keep us in the line up for de-ice if we could get ourselves moving. Apron control were also very good considering we were blocking part of Lane 5 for a few hours. It’s always interesting and frustrating how a couple of really minor problems can shut down a simple departure procedure and then no one is happy. 

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8 hours ago, J.O. said:

A ground handling company failing to have proper equipment for pushing back heavy aircraft in winter conditions is hardly the airport’s fault. 

Good point. Original comment edited.

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9 minutes ago, Kip Powick said:

Malcolm.....I believe that engine is in reverse position.

 

That is what I was trying to point our, not sure how the "Not" got into my sentence.  Correction made.

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On 2/14/2019 at 10:09 PM, Tango Foxtrot said:

Seems to me that this sort of thing never happened when airlines took care of deicing thier own airplanes. 

 

 Am I wrong, or is this caused by the airport running deicing ?

back in the day we could de-ice the aircraft on the gate.  Before the environmental concerns took hold.  The Etobicoke creek, the creek that never froze.

That process reduced wait times.  Today its just a big line up.

 

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