Air Canada flights delayed over technical issue for second time in one week

Air Canada flights across the country were delayed on Thursday, the second time in the span of a week that a technical issue created widespread delays in the airline's system. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) (The Associated Press)

Air Canada flights across the country were delayed on Thursday, the second time in the span of a week that a technical issue created widespread delays in the airline's system.

The Montreal-based airline said in a statement it is experiencing "a temporary technical issue with with its communicator system, one of the systems that we use to communicate with aircraft and monitor operational performance."

"This is resulting in flight delays across our system, but we continue to operate flights at a reduced rate," the airline said in an emailed statement.

"Customers are advised to check their flights before going to the airport. We apologize to those affected, and appreciate their patience."

Passengers reported delays at airports across the country and internationally on Thursday, one week after the company issued a ground stop over the same technical issue. It is unclear how many flights are affected, but passengers reported delays on social media for flights departing from Halifax, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver, as well as from the United Kingdom and United States.

#aircanada reporting an IT system outage. Just boarding flight in Halifax and it’s been halted. Second computer system problem in a week to cause halt-to-operations. pic.twitter.com/kOZORdQGIa

— John Vennavally-Rao (@jvrCTV) June 1, 2023

@CTVToronto @CBCToronto We were told that Air Canada’s IT systems are down. Several flights delayed here in Pearson. pic.twitter.com/8qIjUyK8WH

— Thiago Neres (@thiagoneres) June 1, 2023

Flying home from England. Air Canada has a system wide comms outage. Sounds like all their planes are grounded at the moment :-/. So we are stuck on the tarmac

— Fr. Harrison Ayre 🦚 (@FrHarrison) June 1, 2023

Last week Air Canada issued a brief ground stop order after a widespread technical issue. A spokesperson for the airline said it experienced a temporary technical issue with its communicator system, which is used to communicate with aircraft and monitor operational performance. The airline put a ground stop order in place as a precautionary measure to help with the reset of the communicator system.

There were no ground orders in place on Thursday morning.

Alicja Siekierska is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @alicjawithaj.

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