Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Members of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, I appreciate the opportunity to discuss travel delays and the treatment of air passengers during the recent holiday season.
I have been with Aéroports de Montréal for 15 years now, and have been the president and CEO since 2017. I am accompanied by our vice president of public affairs and sustainable development, Mr. Martin Massé.
As an airport authority, our role is to provide adequate infrastructure and, to the extent of the powers entrusted to us, to ensure quality service delivery to our passengers. In December, 31 airlines offered direct flights from Montreal to 125 destinations, including 93 international destinations.
During the most recent holiday season, a daily average of 450 flights landed and departed at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, code YUL. With the exception of the major impact of the December 23 storm on airports in the northeast and United States Midwest and Canada, causing flight delays and cancellations, overall operations at YUL went smoothly throughout the holiday season, except for one of our partners, Sunwing. I'll come back to that.
Planning for the holiday season began in October with numerous coordination meetings, particularly to ensure that our partners had the necessary number of staff to deliver the promised service to passengers. I can therefore say that the ADM team and the federal agencies were ready to face a particularly busy holiday season. They were also prepared for an exceptional, and, according to some meteorologists, historic storm. Once again this year, YUL distinguished itself for the efficiency of its snow removal operations. Despite the weather cocktail that hit Quebec, YUL remained fully operational at all times thanks to the proven expertise of our people in the field.
We can understand that weather or factors beyond the control of carriers can impact their operations. However, what is unacceptable is the lack of communication with their passengers, who are also our passengers. They have a right to be informed, especially when there is a delay of more than three hours. We must avoid people coming to the airport to wait unnecessarily when they could be in the comfort of their own homes. We need to avoid having hundreds of passengers stuck in our airport waiting for their departure.
In such situations, it is our employees, those of ADM and those of the carriers, who are faced with the understandable frustration of passengers. Naturally, that they want factual answers. We must therefore improve our internal communications with the airlines, because it is important to better understand the situation and, above all, to better explain delays to passengers. For example, they need to be given the precise time of arrival of the aircraft that will take over, and informed when it is en route.
So, back to our more problematic carrier. Last week we contacted them and demanded a plan of action to ensure that resuming normal operations did not take so long. We are awaiting a response from them and hope to have corrective measures in place in time for the late February and March school break.
In closing, let me give you an overview of the level of service that Montreal passengers should expect in the coming months and years. For next summer, considerable efforts are being made by all to ensure that we avoid another summer like 2022. I believe we will succeed, despite a still very difficult labour situation.
What we are more concerned about is the long-term situation. YUL saw tremendous growth before the pandemic, and an equally strong end to 2022. It is clear that, despite significant technological input, our infrastructure will not have the capacity to undertake the next decade.
Many of our infrastructures are outdated, Mirabel remains a collective asset for which ADM bears the annual losses, and decarbonization is becoming a necessity. Our debt level is too high to prepare for the future. We are therefore counting on a financial relief valve in the near future and we believe that it can be provided within the current governance model of major Canadian airports.
Thank you for your attention.