Air Canada System Problems

October 21, 2008

Air Canada experienced a two-hour technical problem Monday that affected the airline's reservation system across the country and slowed the boarding process for travellers. The trouble began at about 10 a.m. ET. The airline's staff at airports experienced intermittent problems until the system stabilized again about noon.

A preliminary analysis points to a routing glitch on the Bell Canada network that connects the computers, Air Canada's Peter Fitzpatrick said.

'It impacted all the operations. The airport computers and the reservation system and system operation control and my own emails were slow today,' Fitzpatrick said.

Some flights were delayed and four short-haul flights were cancelled, but the country's largest airline said it expected passengers who planned to fly on Monday would be able to do so.

'On a typical day, I think we have about 1,200 flights so the impact was small in terms of cancellations,' Fitzpatrick said.

A Bell Canada spokesman in Montreal said the cause of the problem was still being investigated, but the service to Air Canada was restored by about noon.

'We have re-routed the network to isolate the problem. The network is now stable and works normally,' said Jacques Bouchard. 'No other Bell customers were affected.'

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