BC Ferries cancels sailings due to staff shortage
Posted October 7, 2022 6:22 am.
Last Updated October 7, 2022 7:38 pm.
If you’re planning to head to the Island for the long weekend, it might be best to double-check your sailing.
BC Ferries has cancelled two Friday morning and evening sailings due to a staffing shortage, affecting routes between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay.
The 6 p.m sailing leaving Swartz Bay and the 8 p.m. leaving Tsawwassen have both been cancelled for Friday evening.
The 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. sailings have already been cancelled, however, the ferry service reinstated two sailings in the late morning and afternoon.
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“Our Customer Service Centre will contact customers with bookings on these cancelled sailings to let them know if we have space available to fit them on an alternate sailing later in the day, or if their booking must be cancelled,” BC Ferries said in a statement.
The cancellations come as the ferry service added 85 extra sailings between Oct. 6 and Oct. 11 in anticipation of the Thanksgiving long weekend. The service is expecting more than 420,000 passengers and 160,000 vehicles to use the system during the four-day period.
A specific number of crew members are required to be on board to comply with Transport Canada regulations, BC Ferries says, and the decision to cancel sailings is made when “we have exhausted all options to find replacement crew. That said, if circumstances change and replacement crew become available, we will notify customers immediately.”
“We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience you may experience as a result of these cancellations.”
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