A NAV CANADA computer outage is causing delays at many airports in Quebec, including Montreal-Trudeau Airport. The cause of the outage is still unknown.
Published at 6:46 p.m.
Updated at 9:12 p.m.
“A failure of one of our air traffic management systems this evening is causing some flights to be delayed,” NAV CANADA, the organization responsible for air traffic in Canada, confirmed by email.
The computer outage, which occurred around 4:15 p.m., lasted “less than 75 minutes,” estimates Maryam Amini, media relations manager at NAV CANADA. The affected area covers almost all Quebec airports, as well as Ottawa, Wabush and Iqaluit airports.
“Air traffic control has temporarily reduced the flow of departures and arrivals,” Amini added. But “very few flight cancellations have occurred,” she said.
Delays in take-offs
On the Montréal-Trudeau side, this breakdown caused delays on planes that were preparing to take off. “But there were no issues for landings,” said Anne Marcotte, director of public relations at Aéroports de Montréal.
The system returned to normal around 6 p.m., she estimates. “We are in a gradual return to operations,” she stressed in an interview with The Pressshortly after 6 p.m. “But if we restrict takeoffs for a certain period, we cannot have all the planes take off at the same time.”
Travelers will therefore have to be patient. On social networks, passengers are complaining of delays of up to 1 hour 30 minutes at Quebec airport.
At Montréal-Trudeau, we are talking about delays of the order of “minutes,” assures Anne Marcotte. On average, delays in the area affected by the outage were “less than 30 minutes,” affirms Maryam Amini.
A cause still unknown
The cause of this failure has not been specified by NAV CANADA, which explains that it is still “in the process of analyzing the circumstances surrounding it.”
“The measures taken have not caused any problems in terms of air navigation safety,” says Maryam Amini.
The company recommends that travelers check the status of their flight with their airline.
