A shortage of air traffic controllers has led to delays and cancellations at airports across Canada in recent weeks, and the staffing shortfall is not expected to be fully resolved anytime soon.
In the past month alone, NAV Canada — the organization that runs and operates Canada’s civil air navigation system — has announced temporary service interruptions at airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, all due fully or in part to staffing constraints.
Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal saw multiple impacts during that time frame.
“This does create a really frustrating situation for passengers — candidly, we share that frustration,” Vancouver International Airport communications director Stephen Smart told Global News Tuesday night amid the latest round of delays, which lasted for hours.
Nearly 100 flights were cancelled on Tuesday and 195 were delayed amid the Vancouver staffing shortage, which NAV Canada said was resolved early Wednesday morning.
However, the incident created a backlog of delays that took additional days to clear.
Smart explained that, in the event of an unexpected last-minute staffing shortage at air traffic control towers, safety protocols require NAV Canada to reduce the volume of aircraft coming into the airport.
“When we dial that back, it means fewer arrivals on time,” he said. “As people I think can appreciate, those planes then are not able to turn around and depart on time on their next flight.
“So it does have a really significant knock-on effect, and (Tuesday) was particularly significant.”
NAV Canada said earlier this year that there was a severe shortage of air traffic controllers who help manage 18 million square kilometres of Canadian airspace.
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The agency told Global News in a statement this week that it is “taking decisive action” to strengthen its workforce, with more than 500 air traffic controllers currently in training across the country.
“We are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to add capacity where possible, and progress is being made across the Canadian system,” spokesperson Maryam Amini said.
“We continue to recruit, train, and licence new controllers at an increased pace while taking every step needed to support safe and efficient service continuity across the country.”
However, it takes two to three years for recruits to complete the rigorous program that includes classroom, simulation and on-the-job training.
That amount of time is necessary to prepare people for the high-stakes and sometimes stressful job of maintaining safety in the skies and at airports, both NAV Canada and union representatives say.
Trainees also earn a fraction of a typical salary for air traffic controllers — around $60,000 annually, compared to upwards of $200,000 after earning a seat in a control tower.
“Safety and efficiency rely on a well-staffed, well-trained, and well-rested workforce and our air traffic control workforce is understaffed,” Nick von Schoenberg, president of the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association, told Global News in an email.
“The employer is working hard to recover through recruitment and training efforts, but the shortage is significant and the solutions to resolve it are complex and will take time.”
The shortage of air traffic controllers in Canada is not a new issue.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many to take retirement packages, but also stymied preparation of new recruits due to social distancing and the drastic decrease in flight volumes.
In 2023, the International Air Transport Association called out air traffic control organizations in North America, including NAV Canada, for staffing shortages that caused what it called “unacceptable delays and disruptions” to flights.
The organization declined to comment on the latest shortages when asked by Global News.
That same year, a safety audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization found that, while Canada met or exceeded the global average in most areas, its safety operations were scored at nearly 22 per cent effective — 50 points below the global average.
The United Nations agency, which is based in Montreal, includes air traffic control in its definition of safety operations.
NAV Canada says that since 2023, about 230 air traffic controllers have been qualified for work through training at its seven schools across the country. The agency has also partnered with CAE, the world’s largest maker of flight simulators, to train an additional 478 students by 2028.
Von Schoenberg said that until the labour shortage is resolved, the “already stretched” controllers will “always prioritize safety over service continuity” in the event of an unexpected staffing issue like the ones seen this month.
He said mitigating impacts to travellers in the meantime will require “short, medium, and long-term solutions,” without elaborating.
“Pushing controllers harder isn’t the answer,” he said.
—With files from Global’s Jordan Armstrong and Simon Little, and The Canadian Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
