The outage was the result of a “cooling issue” at the airline’s main data center, according to a message to passengers issued Sunday by Diederik Pen, WestJet’s executive vice president and chief executive officer. While Pen says the issue has been resolved, his statement also acknowledged that the company’s technology systems are “still experiencing some instability.” “Unfortunately, due to the extent of yesterday’s network impact, we continue to see residual outages,” Pen’s statement said. “Further delays and cancellations will be required in the coming days as we work diligently to get our operations back up and running.”
IT MEANS THE AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM
In an interview with CTV News Channel on Sunday, Pen elaborated on the cooling issue, saying that the air conditioning system in the company’s data center shut down around noon Saturday and could not be restarted. “As a result, our entire computer data center overheated and shut down,” Pen said. “It’s the core of our system and unfortunately it took nine hours to reboot the system.” Penn told CTV News Channel that 144 flights were canceled on Saturday and 100 on Sunday, a major disruption that he said will continue to ripple through the airline’s system this week. Asked how many days he thought it would take WestJet to return to normal operations, Pen declined to offer a specific time frame. “I don’t want to make false promises,” he said. “We think it will take tomorrow and possibly the day after tomorrow to get everything back to normal and stable.” He said about 6,500 guests affected by the cancellations need to be rebooked and the airline is adding flights to its schedule where it can to accommodate them.
“FULL DISCLOSURE” OF THE INCIDENT PLANNED
The airline said the outage affected its ability to share information with passengers. Many customers took to social media to express their frustration, saying they had waited hours in check-in queues and lost connections as a result. They also criticized the airline for a lack of communication about what was going on, criticism that Pen acknowledged in his statement and interview with CTV News. “On behalf of the entire WestJet team, we sincerely apologize to all guests for this unforeseen disruption to their travel plans and the resulting impact on communications, affecting our ability to relay information,” Pen said. “We deeply regret this weekend’s extraordinary events that prevented us from providing the experience our guests deserve.” The airline says it is currently “experiencing very high volume” on its phone, email and social media support channels and asks guests to check the WestJet app or the company’s website for up-to-date information about their flights. “In an effort to assist guests with upcoming travel plans, we ask all other guests not to contact us until 72 hours before their flight to ensure we can prioritize calls,” Pen said. “Reaccommodation options for all affected guests will be communicated via email as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we are unable to assist guests arriving at our airports for reaccommodation.” Penn said the airline is conducting a “full review” of the incident.
