Travellers outraged as WestJet cancels 832 flights due to strike
WestJet has announced more flight cancellations due to the ongoing strike. By Tuesday, the beleaguered airline will have cancelled 832 flights.
The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA)’s decision to proceed with a strike beginning on the evening of Friday, June 28, led WestJet to abruptly cancel hundreds of flights over the busy Canada Day weekend.
Diederik Pen, president of WestJet Airlines and group chief operating officer, described the situation as “incredibly challenging.”
“Every flight cancellation we are forced to issue represents hundreds of guests who are being impacted by the continued reckless actions of this union,” he said. “In the face of immense adversity, our teams are working hard and delivering a safe and controlled operation.”
Online, people have lashed out at the union.
Don’t get me wrong … @WestJet has horrific service and values now. BUT this was set for arbitration… YOU are now disrupting Canadians travel, work, and family plans. You just lost the support of everyone because of this poor decision. Go back to work.
— Syd Surri (@SurriSyd35130) June 29, 2024
Shame on you all doing this on the Canada Day long weekend. You have harmed thousands of travellers & service industry workers by this. Shame on you!!!!
— Facts (@FactsNotFoxed) June 29, 2024
Maybe we need to change the labour code to stop unions from disrupting tens of thousands of Canadians travel plans over the long weekend and putting them out potentially thousands of dollars.
— Happy_Flier (@77WGE90) June 30, 2024
However, most of the anger appears to be directed at the airline as customers were left scrambling due to cancellations. Many customers claim that the WestJet app isn’t working, and others say they’ve been unable to get through to customer service.
Hilarious that @WestJet will cancel hundreds of flights, leave people stranded, and offer them no customer service (as usual these days) and think people will blame it on workers and the union. That’s on you, babes.
— Eric Bell (@eric_bellMB) June 30, 2024
Thank you @WestJet, our wedding in Mexico is ruined due to your incompetence to mitigate this strike. Tens of thousands of dollars gone because you cannot swallow your pride and save the biggest travel week of the year. Westjet will never recover from this incompetence. #Westjet
— Liam Stein (@LiamStein134677) June 29, 2024
We did. All good UNTIL we started boarding. People were already ON the plane when you cancelled it???? Waiting for news about what we’re supposed to do now.
— tintizard (@tintizard) June 29, 2024
Still on hold pic.twitter.com/UjLChgemLD
— DeepSeaRob (@DeepSeaRob21) June 30, 2024
Fix this. Stupid technical error when trying to cancel. Doesn’t matter what browser I use. This is from the app so that’s useless as well 🤷🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/LEHbQuYMcH
— J Harding (@harding8080) June 30, 2024
Fuck WestJet pay your fucking workers, this is the 2nd time my flight has been cancelled within 16 hours of takeoff with no help from customer service and no way to make it to my destination on time.
— Nurse (2024 Edition) (@SlashNurse) June 29, 2024
Due to flight #1755 to Vancouver being cancelled, my friend is stranded in California. She had been on telephone hold with WJ literally 4 hours, since 8:15 PM, waiting, wanting to arrange another flight home with a final destination of Victoria. At 12:20 am, they HUNG UP on her!
— Polux (Paul Baroux) (@PoluxTweets) June 30, 2024
Here’s a nice view from our $451 (CAD) hotel room since @WestJet can’t figure out which way is up. They won’t compensate for hotel because strikes are “unplanned.” Kind of like an act of god, they say. Zero rental cars available as well. First night of AirBnb down the shitter pic.twitter.com/HcnIOfueRU
— Matt Estrada⛳️🏌🏽 (@MattEstrada1) June 29, 2024
Your greedy company can’t even take phone calls? Cannot do anything on self serve for a flight that only operates once a week… ruined vacation thanks to @westjet
— Ty H (@illcavi2000) June 30, 2024
One commenter stated, “Mechanics are the people keeping us safe after Boeing’s absolute disaster with their planes. How dare you refuse to compensate the people keeping us safe and forcing a strike over the holiday.”
Customers are urged to check the status of their flights and visit the Guest Updates page for more information.
Have you been affected by the WestJet flight cancellations? Share your experience by emailing trending@dailyhive.com.
With files from Kenneth Chan
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