BC Ferries cancel 19 crossings, majority due to lack of staff

   March 27, 2023 ,   Accidents

BC Ferries (Canada) was forced to cancel more than a dozen of crossings over the past week, when many families were on spring break, due to a lack of crew.

From Sunday, March 19th to Sunday, March 26th, the operator said a total of 19 trips had been canceled, with 17 caused by not having enough staff to operate vessels safely.

The other 2 had been caused by mechanical problems.

According to BC Ferries, the canceled sailings were a tiny percentage of the scheduled trips for the week.

The company said it had completed 4570 sailings during the 8-day period.

As a percentage BC Ferries had delivered on 99.6% of scheduled sailings. Crew challenges had impacted ~0.37% of sailings and mechanical impacted ~0.04%.

Earlier this month the line said it was "addressing its staffing issues by undertaking a hiring blitz to recruit and retain staff."

The goal was to fill 500+ casual positions for shoulder/peak season in 2023, with the recruitment campaign running from late February through to April 15th.