Toronto Pearson has been warning travellers, passengers, media organizations and the public about AI-generated articles containing inaccurate information about airport operations, flight delays and flight cancellations.
Some of these articles have published exaggerated or misleading claims about conditions at Toronto Pearson and across the aviation system. This page fact-checks a number of the claims made by AI-generated articles.
Claim: A large number of flights are cancelled or delayed at Toronto Pearson or another airport.
Fact: These figures are meaningless without a specified timeline. Even when one is given, they often greatly overstate the scale of the disruption. One recent article warned of an “aviation crisis” of 54 flight cancellations in 66 days. That’s less than one cancelled flight a day at an airport that regularly sees 1,000 daily flights.
In many cases, it’s unclear where articles are pulling information from. Even when a source is cited, the figures are nearly always exaggerated compared to data compiled by Toronto Pearson and other airports. For example, a bot-produced article analyzed by CTV News referred to “26 flights suspended and 162 delayed” on a day when Toronto Pearson’s own departures information showed six cancellations and 21 flight delays.
Claim: Cancellations and delays are causing airport or system-wide chaos.
Fact: These articles use vague timelines and figures that are typically exaggerated. But even the more plausible claims with specific timelines tend to reflect routine operations at airports around the world. Toronto Pearson often handles 1,000 flights and 100,000 passengers a day – a handful of flight cancellations and delays as short as a few minutes are not indicative of widespread chaos.
Claim: “Only those with essential travel should proceed.”
Fact: This kind of claim is particularly problematic because it could prompt travelers to change their plans based on misinformation – causing the very kind of disruption travelers are seeking to avoid. A passenger’s airline and airport might well be operating entirely normally. Passengers should check with their airline or airport website or social media accounts if they’re concerned about their travel itinerary. At Toronto Pearson, these include:
Claim: Delays will cause widespread disruptions to the entire system.
Fact: Minor disruptions mainly affect passengers on individual flights. It is possible for issues at one location – weather or airline staffing, for example – to create knock-on scheduling issues. But managing the effects of such disruptions is part of airlines’ normal daily work. When flights are cancelled or significantly delayed, airlines reschedule flights, rebook passengers and help them make connections.
Claim: Airports are responsible for delayed or cancelled flights.
Fact: Airports provide the physical infrastructure where airlines, security agencies and retailers do business. Airlines are responsible for route planning and managing flight delays and cancellations. Disruptions regularly occur due to staffing shortages, equipment repairs or weather at a departure airport, arrival airport or anywhere in between. When a flight misses its arrival time at a slot-constrained airport like Toronto Pearson, it may have to wait for a gate to open.
Claim: Scenes of chaos at Toronto Pearson or another airport.
Fact: AI-generated articles typically use AI-generated images to convey false desperation. Look closely for picture credits or details that give away the image as AI-generated.