Network outage forces Porter to cancel 45 flights

About Porter Airlines 40 flights were grounded and others were delayed because staff could not access a computer database with passenger information and reservation lists.

Passengers travelling on Porter Airlines in Toronto faced long delays Tuesday night as officials reported a system-wide network outage that has grounded 45 flights and shut down database access.

The problem began just before 6 p.m., according to Porter spokesperson Brad Cicero. Staff at Billy Bishop Airport were not able to access passenger information and reservation lists and passengers could not access the company’s website.

As a result, 41 flights were cancelled Tuesday night and four more were cancelled for Wednesday. For a complete list of affected flights, click here.

The outage is not a safety issue, Cicero said, but it is preventing customers from checking into their flights.

Cicero said he doesn’t know how long the outage will last.

“This is the situation with all Porter flights so there will be Porter delays in Newark, Washington etc.,” he said.

The technical breakdown only seemed to affect operations at the island airport.

According to a spokesperson with the Greater Toronto Airport Authoritiy, flights out of Pearson International Airport are not affected by the outage and the facility is operating as usual.

Meanwhile, staff at Porter tried to ease the impact on passengers by going through some of the check-in process manually but the slowdown forced officials to cancel a large number of flights.

Dan Mader was hoping to travel to Ottawa tonight but came to the airport only to be told his flight was cancelled.

"It's pretty frustrating," he told CP24. "I give (Porter) credit. They have a lot of people out here but they don't really have that much information on when things are going to be back up. There are a lucky few who will see their flight is still going but for the rest of us, they don't have much to tell us."