Transport Committee on Jan. 12th, 2023

[Deborah Flint]

Again, labour and the resiliency of labour, making this industry an attractive one for the future, one with great careers, is important for us to get resiliency, and meanwhile ensuring that we all have contingency plans to address some of the softness as we restart the sector.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. Flint.

Next, from the Vancouver Airport Authority, we have Ms. Vrooman.

Ms. Vrooman, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Tamara Vrooman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Airport Authority]

Thank you very much.

Good morning, committee members. I welcome the opportunity to answer your questions. Thank you for the invitation to present to you today.

I'm coming to you from my office at the Vancouver International Airport, which is on Sea Island, the traditional territory of the Musqueam people. We have a deep and lasting relationship with the Musqueam through our sustainability agreement, and I'd like to pay my respect to elders past and present.

I will keep my opening remarks brief and focus on three things: first, an understanding of the weather events that impacted passengers at YVR; second, the immediate steps we took to support passengers and the help we provided to reunite people with their baggage; and third, what changes within the airport system will be made to ensure that what passengers experienced in December does not happen again.

YVR is prepared and able to operate safely in extreme weather. We remained fully operational during the atmospheric river in November 2021, for example. That was also true when the snow and ice storm came at the end of November, virtually shutting down the rest of the region.

That said, this holiday travel season was unique. The impacts to passengers from the multi-day weather event that hit Vancouver were worsened by extreme cold temperatures in Alberta. Storms across eastern Canada and the United States created challenges in the subsequent days. We were prepared for these weather systems in advance. We coordinated with air carriers and their ground handlers. Our de-icing facility and snow removal equipment were fully stood up and operational throughout. We published a departure management plan, or DMP, that would ensure efficient airport operations.

However, into the evening of December 19, the rate of snowfall increased significantly from a forecast of 10 to 12 centimetres to an actual accumulation of up to 30 centimetres, three times what was forecast. As CBC reported, our region received a year's worth of snow accumulation in just 12 hours—a key 12 hours. It meant that aircraft lost what's known as “holdover” time, the amount of time that flight safety guidelines say de-icing fluid remains effective and safe for takeoff. Aircraft that had been de-iced for takeoff were forced to turn back to the airport. Aircraft filled up the gates very quickly. It became difficult to move empty aircraft off gates to make way for arriving passengers.

The accelerated snowfall continued into the early morning hours of December 20. That created broad issues for customers, including unacceptable tarmac delays, while we worked with airlines to clear gates and the massive backlog of aircraft on our airfield.

In the days that followed, we took extraordinary action to help passengers who were stranded in our terminal waiting to re-book cancelled flights. We mobilized our staff, deployed our resources and brought in our community partners. We provided food, water, hygiene products and baby formula for passengers. The airport authority itself paid for more than 400 hotel rooms for up to four nights for 580 passengers so that they didn’t have to sleep in the airport. We established a care and comfort area in the airport, a place to recharge with cots, blankets and access to showers.

As our operations stabilized, the severe weather out east resulted in aircraft arriving at YVR without passenger bags. In response, we took additional steps to assist our carrier partners. We started scanning passengers' delayed bags and set up secure storage areas to help connect passengers with their bags. This was vitally important. It helped us alleviate some of the demands on airline staff so that they could focus on helping passengers in other ways.

I am confident we made the right decisions to keep passengers safe during that week. However, I also believe passengers spent an absolutely unacceptable amount of time on YVR's tarmac, particularly overnight on December 20. As a result, we have implemented initial measures to help ensure that a similar situation does not occur within our airport ecosystem. These measures include greater communication and coordination with airlines around gating, towing, and, most vitally, as many have noted, communication with passengers. We are also launching a series of engagements next week to hear directly from our airport community and the travelling public. We want to hear their feedback and their ideas for what they want to see going forward.

Thank you very much for your time. I welcome your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. Vrooman, for your opening remarks.

We will begin our line of questioning with Mr. Strahl.

Mr. Strahl, the floor is yours. You have six minutes.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We certainly appreciate all of you coming to share your perspective. We heard from the airlines this morning, and we'll be hearing from the minister later today.

I do want to talk a bit about the November 24 summit that the minister held. He indicated that at that summit he gave direction to the industry players that would prevent travel chaos from happening in the winter season as it happened in the summer season.

Perhaps I'll start with you, Ms. Vrooman. Were you a part of that discussion? Did the minister provide specific direction to YVR as to what changes you should make to your operations? Did he demand anything from you at that summit?

[Tamara Vrooman]

Thanks very much, MP Strahl.

I certainly participated in person at that Ottawa summit. The purpose of the summit was to gather information on what had happened over the summer period. We saw over the summer period labour shortages among some of our key partners, such as CATSA and Border Services. Those had largely been stabilized by the time we were into November here at YVR. There was also what could be done across the ecosystem to plan for better coordination, information sharing and the deployment of technology.

It was an input session. We certainly provided our advice on the changes we think would be necessary to help strengthen the airport system and the aviation system in the long term. That was the purpose and that was my participation at that event.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

After December 19, when did you first speak to the minister about the situation at YVR?

[Tamara Vrooman]

We spoke to the minister's office on December 18, because of course we had advance warning that there would be a snow event. It happened to occur in a more intense fashion than what was forecast anywhere, but we did alert him—

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Obviously, sector players are in touch with the minister's office. That's expected. I would like to know, though, if the minister himself reached out to you. Did he reach out to you during that time, or has he since? Have you spoken with him directly since the events of December 18, 19 and 20?

[Tamara Vrooman]

I have spoken to his deputy minister. I have not spoken to the minister.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Okay. Thank you.

You indicated that you were prepared in advance for this event. Obviously, you have an emergency operations centre that was stood up. However, clearly, there were more planes inbound. The airport was completely closed, I understand, on the 19th in the afternoon and evening. As a result of no gates being available, we saw planes on the tarmac, which you've referenced.

Is part of your review to determine...? Did you talk to Nav Canada?

Were there flights that were allowed to proceed to YVR that should have been held at their origin, so that you didn't have the issue of that many planes sitting on an apron that was unable to disembark passengers?

[Tamara Vrooman]

Thank you.

As you correctly note, we had significant congestion at YVR for the 24 hours, starting at about 7 p.m. on December 19 through to 7 p.m. on December 20. That was created, as I explained, because of the way the snow accumulated and the fact that we could not safely move the planes to takeoff position after they had been de-iced. It created a traffic jam, virtually.

We had something called a ground stop, which you referred to. That means that we were preventing inbound aircraft from landing. We are in constant communication with the navigation authority in the tower—Nav Canada—in those situations. When aircraft are already in flight and there is no ability to divert for other safety or weather reasons, we permit arrival.

We were operating under a demand management plan, which meant we had a restricted schedule in the first place to allow for that flexibility. However, unfortunately, it was such a busy day—the busiest week of travel in the past three years—that there was certainly a large number of aircraft—

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

I have limited time.

There is talk of running out of de-icing fluid and running out of aviation fuel. Did either of those things happen? If so, how did they happen, given that, as we said, this was a bad winter storm, but it was a couple of days?

I'm asking about your resiliency. Did you run out of fluid? If so, why? Did you run out of aviation fuel? If so, why?

[Tamara Vrooman]

At no time did YVR run out of either de-icing fluid or fuel.

I think what happened was we were in constant communication with all airport partners, including carriers, and, because of the accumulation, we used more de-icing fluid than we normally would. However, at no point did we run out of de-icing fluid or fuel.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Ms. Flint, I appreciate your testimony.

I have trouble understanding how terminal 3's baggage system went down in the Canadian winter. It sounds to me like you didn't put your winter tires on and you're surprised that you got stuck in the snow.

How would sprinkler pipes freeze? How would terminal 3's baggage facilities not be able to keep up with Canadian winter? Does that not indicate a lack of adequate planning for a winter event on Pearson's part?

[Deborah Flint]

No. Certainly not. We absolutely did extensive preparation for winter with our facilities. This was a very unique and complicated situation that involved the puncture of an aircraft baggage cart and a fuel leak that caused the doors to have to be opened to vent the fumes away from our workers. That was done in response with our fire department.

That, coupled with the unusual cold and a unique direction of wind into that baggage area, which is not something we usually experience.... These were very unusual events that began the trail of system failures that resulted in something we've never seen before with the freezing of those units. We have had temperatures that are far colder than that, and our system operated quite well.

Again, our system was plagued for two days, but for only one hour out of those two days was the system fully down in terminal 3. Terminal 1 is a totally separate system and did not suffer these issues—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. Flint.

Thank you very much, Mr. Strahl.

Next we have Mr. Sorbara.

The floor is yours. You have six minutes.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's wonderful to be here. I'm not a regular member of this committee. It's great to sub in and assist the team, but also to address concerns that have been expressed by Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

First off, if I may, I want to say “thank you” to all of those hard-working Canadians who work for the airports and the airlines, from the baggage handlers to the people who we greet when we check in, and so forth. They always have a smile and they're always doing their best, and they should receive a shout-out. I think that's important, because they do their best, even when they greet travellers who are experiencing things that we don't want them to experience and who may not be in the best of moods. I thank you for that.

This morning, we heard from the airlines. In their testimony, it became apparent to me that they were talking about shared responsibility or what I would characterize as a shared burden in terms of being held responsible for delays that should not have occurred. At YVR, it was the individuals who were held on the tarmac. At GTAA, it was the the baggage carousel.

I'd like to hear very quickly from GTAA and from the Vancouver Airport Authority. What do you think of the idea of shared responsibility, or my term of shared burden?

[Deborah Flint]

Thank you.

Of the airport and the airline system in it, only the airline has a contract of carriage with a passenger. The airline, in its risk management, has to put in planning around the risks that are inherent in the marketplace. They do so with the number of fleets and the number of crew. They consider the facilities and they consider all of the processes that are involved in air travel. That is uniquely and distinctly within the air carrier's realm.

There are different levels of remedies in the current APPR that include, in some cases, the provision of flight, which is something that only the air carriers can do. We know that the minister is looking into the APPR and the regulations. We welcome that conversation and providing our input into that.

We certainly support more service-level standards across the industry, so that all the parties can work better together to plan how to minimize these risks, whether they're day-to-day or, again, in these extreme events.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Thank you, Ms. Flint.

Can YVR answer, please?

[Tamara Vrooman]

Thanks very much.

Thanks for the shout-out, MP Sorbara, to frontline staff. They certainly did exemplary work throughout that very difficult week.

In addition to what my colleague Deborah has said, I would say that.... For example, in our case, when we are talking about the tarmac delays, you might be surprised to know that the airports have no ability to tow or move aircraft. We don't have towing equipment and we don't have the legal authority or insured authority to do so, even if we wished to, so it's a complex ecosystem that works in order to serve passengers safely and efficiently each and every day.

At the airport authority, we would welcome the opportunity for discussion to increase the responsibility of airports for the coordination and movement of some of those kinds of functions. Of course, we would then be happy to share the accountability for providing that service to the level that Canadians expect.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Thank you.

My next question concerns something that has already been alluded to: staffing at the airports. We went through the pandemic and there was obviously a decline in staffing levels. Staffing levels have now gone back up, but volumes have not returned to where they were prepandemic. It's concerning as we move forward that airports and airlines can handle increased passenger counts as we return to a fully normal travel season, and for expansion and growth.

Where are the airports in terms of staffing, and do there continue to be staffing shortages?

I'll first go to the Montreal airport, please.

[Philippe Rainville]

Let me make a small correction: we have already recovered the traffic volume that existed before the pandemic. We even have weeks where we exceed that volume. We have had weeks where it was 107% of what it was in 2019.

It is clear that in Montreal—I think I can speak for my two colleagues as well—we have the staff required, including baggage handlers, to be able to serve the community. In addition, we are making sure with our partners that they have the required staff as well.

We are in constant communication with government agencies, including baggage services. We even post the positions they want to fill on our website. So we're there, we're ready, and the staff is there.

Are people fully trained? That's another question. Do they have the speed and level of execution that we require? There's still work to be done on that front.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Flint, can you jump in on that question? I want to ask a final question, but I have only 30 seconds, so please be quick.

[Deborah Flint]

For the GTAA, 1,500 of the 50,000 employees at the airport are my direct staff. We are well staffed and have hired back over the course of the summer.

The issue is that staffing and labour today are different than what they were before the pandemic. Equivalent levels are not necessarily the best comparison. It really is about the high attrition we're seeing in the market. I'd like the industry, especially the Canadian aviation industry, to be seen as one that is one for the future and one where promising careers and great jobs can be offered. We want to see teams that come to the industry and of course remain. In the meantime, we must all work together to have more resilient plans that address newer staff in a very complex operating environment.