Air Canada flights delayed as airline faces 2nd technical issue in a week

Air Canada says a technical issue is delaying flights across its network on Thursday.The airline said in a statement to Global News that it is continuing to operate flights “at a reduced rate.”Air Canada flagged a “temporary technical issue” with its communicator system used to communicate with and monitor aircraft as the source of the delays.“Customers are advised to check their flights before going to the airport.

We apologize to those affected, and appreciate their patience,” a spokesperson said.The delays come a week after Air Canada’s flights were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the U.S.

over another issue it described as a problem with the communicator system. That stoppage lasted a little under an hour.Passengers took to Twitter on Thursday morning to describe hours-long delays and being unable to get off planes stuck on the tarmac.Julie MacArthur, an associate professor at Royal Roads University in B.C., told Global News that both of her flights into and out of Ontario this past week were affected by the pair of Air Canada outages.It took MacArthur and her four-year-old child 25 hours to fly from Victoria to Ottawa on May 25 amid the delays, she said.

That comes after her mother-in-law’s flight from Dublin to B.C. was cancelled hours before takeoff in light of the WestJet pilot strike.On Thursday morning, MacArthur and her child were then stuck on the tarmac before departure at Toronto Pearson Airport for nearly three and a half hours before being told everyone on board would have to deplane.MacArthur told Global News via a DM on Twitter that after having to sleep on chairs waiting for a connecting flight at Pearson last week, her child felt afraid to have to deplane again.She noted that.