In a disruption that echoed across the aviation industry, two simultaneous system outages recently compelled one of Canada’s prominent airlines to brace its customers for potential flight delays.
WestJet, responding to the systemic failure, announced via a series of posts on the social media platform “X” (formerly known as Twitter) that it was grappling with sweeping delays across its network. The issue, the airline revealed, originated from a malfunction with its booking partner, Sabre.
The problems, however, extended beyond WestJet’s individual clientele. The airline disclosed that the malfunctions significantly impacted “multiple airlines” that also utilize Sabre’s services. Further complicating the situation, the Canada Border Service Agency was concurrently grappling with a system outage, exacerbating the delays experienced by passengers.
Despite the clearly expansive reach of the issue, WestJet could not provide a comprehensive overview of the disruption’s overall impact. While passenger delays were confidently reported, the actual number of flight delays attributable solely to the outages remained unclear.
A more specific examination of the situation revealed that a minimum of 21 flights faced potential delays in Toronto—though it remained uncertain whether all these were tied to the Sabre glitch. Meanwhile, on Canada’s West Coast, Vancouver reported delays for 12 WestJet flights, both incoming and outgoing, by Wednesday morning. Additional disruptions with other airlines were noted, thus making it challenging to ascertain the true extent of delays related to the Sabre issue.
The disruptions extended to flights servicing Montreal, with all WestJet flights indicated as either “delayed” or marked with a “revised time.” Only two evening departures defied this trend, as they were yet to be assigned a “state.” However, most WestJet flights departing from Calgary International Airport, as per the airport’s official website, appeared either unaffected or experienced minimal delays. In an isolated instance, a flight was cancelled without a revised time or status displayed.
In a later update, the company directed inquiries regarding the disruption to a designated website providing customer service contact numbers. Thankfully, WestJet confirmed that the issues were satisfactorily resolved shortly before 3 p.m. EDT.
