A flight that led to a family of passengers arriving at their destination 56 hours late has led to a legal fight against Air Canada.
In a BC Civil Resolution Tribunal dispute, Abdallah Mohamed and Ghada Ali brought a small-claims case against Air Canada.
According to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), a delay within the airline’s control forces the airline to pay impacted passengers an inconvenience fee of $1,000.
In total, there were five passengers involved, and Mohamed and Ali claimed $5,000 in total.
Is that what they got? Here’s what happened.
The Air Canada passengers in the case bought five tickets, two for themselves and three for other family members.
The itinerary was as follows: Kelowna to Vancouver; Vancouver to London; London to Cairo.
The Kelowna flight left over two hours late, and the delay forced the passengers to be rebooked on another flight, causing them to arrive in Cairo 56 hours later than scheduled.
According to the tribunal, the applicants were owed nothing if the delay was outside Air Canada’s control.
The applicants argued that the delay was due to Air Canada staffing issues. Air Canada argued that the delay was due to air traffic control (ATC) and a ground delay program (GDP).
After sorting through the submitted evidence, the tribunal agreed with Air Canada that some of the issues pertaining to the delay were outside of the airline’s control; however, some of the submitted evidence referenced issues relating to sales agents, which the tribunal determined would’ve been Air Canada agents.
Ultimately, the tribunal found that the delay was partly Air Canada’s fault, which led it to decide that the passengers were entitled to their $1,000 inconvenience fee claims. While the passengers initially claimed $5,000, only two made claims through the tribunal, so the tribunal awarded only those two passengers the $1,000 convenience fees.
Air Canada was on the hook for $2,155.48, including the inconvenience and tribunal fees.
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