We tracked how many flights were cancelled at London's airport. This is what we found.

An average of three flights a day have been cancelled every day since mid June at the London International Airport, numbers compiled by CBC News reveal. 

CBC London began tracking flight cancellations on June 14. In the 21 days CBC tracked, only four days had no flight cancellations. Anyone flying in or out of London on June 30 was particularly unlucky: that day, seven flights were cancelled.  

"It's really a multiple factor event in terms of staffing levels and operational capacity, just not being able to meet what the airlines had put in their schedules," said Scott McFadzean, the CEO of the London airport. 

CBC News began tracking the cancellations just as the summer flying season went into high gear and the same day the airport announced that Flair, an ultra-low cost airline, would begin flying out of the London airport in December with flights to Tuscon, Arizona. 

But before any of those new flights get off the ground, it appears that airlines already flying out of London, WestJet and Air Canada, are having trouble actually making regular flights happen. 

It's a trend that's happening all over the world, and has trickled down to London, where many flights connect through Toronto's Pearson International Airport, currently in the grips of delays, lost luggage and cancelled flights. 

"The airlines had planned aggressively to try and continue to get back on track and return to pre-COVID levels of traffic. They were putting fairly aggressive schedules in place throughout this summer," McFadzean said. 

The majority of the cancelled flights in London are either to or from Toronto on Air Canada or WestJet. 

As pandemic restrictions dropped, many Canadians are ready to travel again but cancellations and delays have hampered plans. 

Disruptions are a result of "the industry's complex and unavoidable challenges," said  Air Canada president and CEO Michael Rousseau. Those delays and cancellations are happening across the globe, "resulting from a complex array of persistent factors impacting airlines and our partners in the aviation ecosystem."

Across the country, Air Canada is slashing about 154 flights daily from July through August, and West Jet is planning to reduce the number of flights by 25 per cent this summer compared to 2019, or about 530 per day. 

"As a result of consistent and proactive efforts, we have been able to stabilize our operation to prevent reactive cancellations however, there remains significant operational challenges across the Canadian aviation ecosystem that fall outside of our control, contributing to significant delays," Denise Kenny, a spokesperson for West Jet, said in an email.

'We're in great shape' 

Maintenance checks for airplanes that sat idle and staffing issues at some airports and airlines have added to the chaos, McFadzean said. Still, he called the operations at London International Airport "smooth." 

"Certainly from a staffing perspective and a flow through our airport, we're in great shape," he said. "We've got full staffing levels across the board, so no issues getting people checked in and through security and on to the secure side of the airport." 

"It's still a very easy and comfortable airport experience for our travelers. It's just been some of the frustration with the cancelled flights that has been the biggest issue."