Overbooking is based on historical numbers. Like say WestJet has a flight to Vancouver that leaves at 3 pm today, they'll look at the historical numbers and say, "typically, on a 3 pm to Vancouver in mid-April, 4 people do not show up." They then consider it a safe bet to oversell by 3 or 4 seats, and most often come out ahead.
But to reiterate... apparently that's not what this situation was. They were urgently trying to get crew out but did not realize they would need those seats until after boarding. So they screwed up, but this was not a fundamental flaw in the concept of overbooking.
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Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
I assume this is why I'm currently sitting in an airport bar in Phoenix instead of spending two more hours driving my rental corvette or sitting by the pool. How are there flight delays for construction? Did they not know construction was happening? Did they not see it coming? How was this not factored into the schedule?
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They did know, they did adjust, and guarantees by Nav Canada (air traffic control) and the Toronto Airport Authority about the impact of the construction have not been met. Behind closed doors, Air Canada and WestJet are collectively at war with the above authorities over the delays at Toronto right now.