COMP NEWS – Air Canada recently refused a passenger compensation for a delayed flight on the basis that his flight was delayed due to a “labour dispute” with the airline’s employees.

For Scott Aalgaard, it doesn’t add up.

On the morning of July 5, Air Canada informed Aalgaard by email his flight that day from Toronto to Hartford, Conn., had been delayed due to “an unforeseen maintenance issue.”

That afternoon, the reason had changed to either “staffing constraints” or “health and safety initiatives.”

Three days later, Air Canada informed Aalgaard he doesn’t qualify for compensation because his flight was cancelled (instead of delayed) due to a “labour dispute” that was outside the airline’s control.

Canada, under federal law, requires airlines to compensate passengers for flight delays under particular circumstances.

Under federal regulations, airlines must compensate passengers up to $1,000 for long flight delays. 

Because Aalgaard’s flight was delayed by six hours, he, his wife and daughter, whom he was travelling with, would each get $700. However, airlines only have to pay up if the reason for the delay was within their control and not for safety reasons, such as unforeseen mechanical problems.

Air Canada’s compensation dismissal appears to indirectly claim that ‘labour disputes’, such as employee strikes, fail to satisfy federal criteria for compensation.

Aalgaard’s not alone. Shortly after Canada launched its flight delay compensation rules in 2019, thousands of air passengers flooded the Canadian Transportation Agency with complaints they received inadequate reasons for denied compensation. 

In November 2021, following a lengthy inquiry that involved all of Canada’s major airlines, the CTA announced it found no evidence the airlines “intentionally misled passengers.” However, the agency said much of the information provided to passengers explaining their flight delays “was inadequate, terse and unclear.”

As a result, the CTA clarified that airlines must explain in “sufficient detail” the reason for a flight disruption. 

However, the Canadian Transportation Agency just recently announced a ruling on a similar case, where airline company WestJet was forced to compensate a passenger for a flight delay due to a crew shortage.

This week, the CTA issued a decision in a compensation case, ordering WestJet to pay $1,000 to a passenger following a 21-hour flight delay.

According to the CTA’s decision, WestJet had previously told the passenger he wasn’t entitled to compensation because his original flight had been cancelled for safety reasons due to a crew shortage. 

The CTA concluded that crew shortages are generally within the airline’s control and that WestJet “did not sufficiently establish” that the flight cancellation “was unavoidable despite proper planning.”

To read more about ongoing WestJet and Air Canada compensation claims, click here.

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