Pack your patience, delays likely to continue at YVR: air traffic control association

If your travel plans this summer include hopping aboard a flight, be prepared to wait.

The busy summer travel season is being coupled with staffing shortages, which could impact your upcoming air travel.

On Sunday, several flights were delayed at Vancouver International Airport due to NAV Canada staffing constraints according to YVR – for the fourth time in just over a month.

“Like many in the complex global air industry, NAV CANADA is currently experiencing frontline air traffic services staffing challenges,” a NAV Canada spokesperson says in a statement to CTV News. “NAV CANADA is leveraging a number of options to support appropriate staffing levels including optimizing staff scheduling, rehiring recently retired controllers, temporary assignments and overtime.”

NAV Canada says its frontline air traffic services training program is full, with 400 employees in training and 600 entering training programs in the next two years, but it takes between 12 and 27 months to complete.

The Canadian Air Traffic Control Association (CATCA) tells CTV News travellers can expect staffing shortage delays to be “ongoing for a while” while new workers are trained and hired.

The CATCA says while there is a struggle with shortages and depleted staffing, it is happy with the work NAV Canada is doing on recruitment and training.

Both NAV Canada and the CATCA say air traffic control staffing isn’t the only reason behind delays at YVR.

“NAV CANADA is often not the primary source of delays,” NAV Canada’s statement reads. “Factors such as infrastructure maintenance, runway construction and weather are by far the most frequent source of delays, with many parties involved – airlines, airport operations, baggage handling and others.”

On Monday, more than two dozen arriving flights were delayed at YVR from 3:30 p.m. onwards, at least 15 for more than an hour. About two dozen departures were also delayed during that same time frame, five for more than an hour.

“The delays we've seen today at YVR can't be attributed to one particular reason,” a spokesperson with YVR tells CTV News, adding that there was some challenging weather and thunderstorms out east, which can cause delays.

YVR says its operation centre noted nothing out of the ordinary Monday when it came to delayed flights.

It is also the busy summer travel season, which according to YVR will see an average of 76,222 passengers daily this week, totaling more than 533,000.