A packed Air Canada Boeing 787 Dreamliner was forced to perform a U-turn nearly four hours into a flight from Toronto to Barbados after air traffic controllers in the Caribbean staged a shock, resulting in the closure of the airspace on Saturday.
The Barbados Ministry of Tourism and International Transport said that the airspace over the country was shuttered for around seven and a half hours on March 7, stranding passengers at the island’s Grantley Adams International Airport.
The reason? It appears that air traffic controllers took part in an unsanctioned strike in protest at a slew of unsettled grievances, including staff shortages, that have resulted in controllers taking on additional responsibilities without extra compensation.
As the walkout got underway and flights were grounded, the government was forced to mediate an emergency meeting with the Barbados Workers’ Union and the National Union of Public Workers, which represent air traffic controllers, in an attempt to break the deadlock.
The meeting stretched on for a number of hours, although sources claim the discussions were “productive” and air traffic controllers returned to work after the government promised a further meeting on March 11 to settle the dispute.
The return to work was, however, too late for passengers on Air Canada flight AC-966, which departed Toronto Pearson Airport at around 9 am on Saturday for what should have been a routine four and a half hour flight to Barbados.
Instead, the packed airliner was forced to turn back shortly after passing Bermuda, arriving right back where it started in Toronto in the same amount of time that it would have taken to reach Barbados.
A WestJet flight from Toronto to Barbados was also forced to turn back midflight, although given that the plane departed slightly later, the time in the air wasn’t quite as bad.
United Airlines also diverted its daily service between Newark and Barbados back to New York around an hour and a half after departure, along with JetBlue, which diverted a flight back to JFK, and Delta Air Lines, which diverted a flight from JFK to Puerto Rico.
Delta was also forced to cancel its daily departure between Atlanta and Barbados on Saturday.
