WestJet and NAV Canada restore service after outages delay 100 flights

WestJet airline signage is pictured at Vancouver’s worldwide airport in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, February 5, 2019. REUTERS/Ben Nelms/File Picture

MONTREAL/OTTAWA, July 14 (Reuters) – WestJet Airways and air visitors management supervisor NAV Canada mentioned their providers have been returning to regular on Thursday afternoon following earlier outages that led to lengthy airport strains and 100 delayed flights.

WestJet Airways mentioned it had restored check-in and gate providers hit earlier within the day.

The nation’s largest airports are already wrestling with delays and misplaced baggage as workers wrestle to maintain up with an unexpectedly robust rebound in air journey after a pandemic-induced hunch.

Canada additionally mentioned on Thursday it will resume random COVID-19 testing for inbound worldwide air passengers efficient Tuesday, after a couple of month-long pause. Testing websites might be moved exterior airports to cut back congestion.

Passengers flying privately-held WestJet took to social media to publish photos and accounts of hours-long strains at airports, corresponding to at Canada’s busiest, Toronto Pearson Worldwide Airport.

“Throughout our community we’ve seen three cancellations and greater than 100 flights have been delayed on account of the outage,” WestJet mentioned in an announcement.

NAV Canada attributed the outage to Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., certainly one of its telecommunications providers suppliers.

Zayo a communications infrastructure platform, mentioned the outage was brought on by the disruption of two key fiber strains, partly due to a prepare derailment on Wednesday night time.

“We have now rerouted a major quantity of visitors by way of different routes in order that our prospects can start resuming regular operations,” mentioned Zayo, which supplies bandwidth to prospects together with the tech and finance industries.

Earlier on Thursday, the Larger Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), which operates Toronto’s Pearson, cited lengthy strains at certainly one of its terminals as a result of outages, whereas Calgary Worldwide Airport mentioned vacationers could expertise delays.

Final week, an enormous community outage at Rogers Communications Inc (RCIb.TO) disrupted practically each aspect of life in Canada, together with the decision middle service of the nation’s largest airline Air Canada (AC.TO). learn extra

The federal authorities mentioned this week that Canada’s telecom networks have to be extra resilient and requested telecommunications firms to conform to a proper deal to assist one another throughout emergencies. learn extra

Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Allison Lampert in Montreal; enhancing by John Stonestreet, Chris Reese, Richard Chang and Diane Craft

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