Airline Apology Letters For Flight Delays and Cancellations

Letters From The Airlines About Flight Delays and Cancellations

Kerwin McKenzie Uncategorized

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Airline Letters Explaining Flight Delays and Cancellations

I was minding my own business this week and an email popped into my mailbox. It was from Lufthansa. I shared it with my friends on Facebook and there were mixed feelings about this. I thought it was a good idea for them to communicate with us as to what’s going on.

Basically, the letters tried to explain why we are having all the issues and also apologized. They were great reads as you got an insight into what’s going on and how they plan on handling them.

I really think the airlines were silly at booking the future flights to the gills and overbooking them too. With the issue of still being in a pandemic and pilot shortages and several countries still having travel restrictions, they should have held back. Instead they went full force. Now they are cancelling flights and disrupting their customers’ travels.

So you are going to have delayed this summer, so plan on it. Don’t make those close connections and read the airline’s Contracts of Carriage so you can know your rights when you are delayed or cancelled.

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Here are links to the letters:

  1. Lufthansa – https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/executive-letter 
  2. Air Canada – You can read the schedule updates at https://www.aircanada.com/us/en/aco/home/book/travel-news-and-updates/2022/summer-2022-schedule-adjustments.html#/ and here’s the letter:
    • At Air Canada, we know how important travel plans are. This is even more the case today when many are taking their first trip in years following the pandemic. Whether for long-anticipated vacations, visits with relatives and friends, or for business, we are grateful and recognize our responsibility when people like you entrust your travel to our airline.

      Regrettably, things are not business as usual in our industry globally, and this is affecting our operations and our ability to serve you with our normal standards of care. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world air transport system to a halt in early 2020. Now, after more than two years, global travel is resurgent, and people are returning to flying at a rate never seen in our industry.

      This surge in travel has created unprecedented and unforeseen strains on all aspects of the global aviation system. Around the world, there are recurring incidents of flight delays and airport congestion, resulting from a complex array of persistent factors impacting airlines and our partners in the aviation ecosystem. Similar effects are being seen in other industries too, where companies and suppliers are struggling to restart, unclog supply chains and meet pent‑up demand.

      At Air Canada, we anticipated many of these factors and began taking tangible action during the depth of the pandemic to be ready for a rapid restart. Yet, despite detailed and careful planning, the largest and fastest scale of hiring in our history, as well as investments in aircraft and equipment, it is now clear that Air Canada’s operations too have been disrupted by the industry’s complex and unavoidable challenges. The result has been flight cancellations and customer service shortfalls on our part that we would never have intended for our customers or for our employees, and for which we sincerely apologize.

      In response, we took a number of important steps, including introducing flexible ticket policies, new travel self-management tools, improvements to airport operations, as well adjustments to our schedule ‑ all to strengthen operational resiliency and to give customers more options. However, to bring about the level of operational stability we need, with reluctance, we are now making meaningful reductions to our schedule in July and August in order to reduce passenger volumes and flows to a level we believe the air transport system can accommodate.

      This was not an easy decision, as it will result in additional flight cancellations that will have a negative impact on some customers. But doing this in advance allows affected customers to take time to make other arrangements in an orderly manner, rather than have their travel disrupted shortly before or during their journey, with few alternatives available. It will also enable us to more reliably serve all customers.

      I can assure you Air Canada is also working in close cooperation with airports, government, and its third-party service providers, who all are striving to return our industry to pre-pandemic standards of operation.

      We are convinced these changes will bring about the improvements we have targeted. But to set expectations, it should also be understood the real benefits of this action will take time and be felt only gradually as the industry regains the reliability and robustness it had attained prior to the pandemic.

      On behalf of all of us at Air Canada, please accept my sincere apologies for any disruption you have experienced or may experience with your travel plans during this unprecedented period. I also assure you that we very clearly see the challenges at hand, that we are taking action, and that we are confident we have the strategy to address them. This is our company’s chief focus at every level.

      Thank you for your patience and understanding. We certainly look forward to future opportunities to serve you and regain your loyalty at a time when we can better demonstrate our commitment to taking good care of customers such as yourself.

      Sincerely,

      Michael Rousseau
      President and Chief Executive Officer
      Air Canada

  3. Delta Air Lines – did not post letter on their website; only sent via email

 

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