Two Canadian travellers who recently booked a trip through Flair Airlines decided to sue the company over flight delays.
Matthew Welsh and Andrew Nickel brought a Civil Resolution Tribunal case against Flair Airlines, claiming $440.77 in compensation and a refund under the Canada Transportation Act’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR).
While Flair initially denied liability, it agreed in its court submissions that Nickel was eligible for $125 in flight delay compensation under the APPR.
Some of the details of this case between the Canadian passengers and Flair Airlines could be useful if you decide to sue an airline.
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The tribunal member overseeing the case had to decide whether or not the flight delays were within Flair’s control and if the airline owed $440.77 in compensation.
Welsh and Nickel booked their flights together, heading from Vancouver to Kitchener Waterloo and back. Their outbound flight left on March 18, and the return flight departed on March 21.
The parties agreed that both flights were delayed by three to six hours.
Welsh said because of the outbound flight delay, he would have arrived at his destination in the middle of the night and couldn’t access his pre-arranged accommodations. Welsh emailed Flair that the delayed flight no longer met his travel needs, but Nickel still flew.
Flair didn’t offer any alternate travel arrangements for Welsh, which is undisputed.
Under the APPR, Welsh and Nicle were seeking $65.77 for a ticket refund for the unused flights, $125 for each flight delay, and $125 for Nickel’s return flight delay.
Throughout the case, Flair gave numerous reasons why the flights were delayed, some within the airline’s control, some not.
According to the APPR, if a flight is delayed at least three hours for reasons outside the airline’s control, the carrier has to provide free alternate travel arrangements or, failing that, a ticket refund.
“The refund may be chosen anytime before receiving a confirmed alternate travel reservation.”
Potential factors outside an airline’s control could include weather or natural disasters that make safe operation impossible.
Even if a flight is delayed by at least three hours for reasons that are within the airline’s control but not for safety reasons, it still has to provide alternate travel arrangements or a refund.
Where the case fell apart for Flair Airlines was the fact that for the return trip, it could not provide any evidence that the reason for the delays was weather-related. Flair did submit excerpts related to the weather woes, but the tribunal member said he didn’t understand.
“I find the submitted evidence consists almost entirely of unexplained numbers, acronyms, and codes, whose meaning is far from obvious, and which I do not understand.”
The tribunal member said Flair should’ve known better and that “this evidence was subject matter outside ordinary knowledge and experience.”
In the end, the passengers were awarded $440.77 in debt, $6.11 in pre-judgement interest and $125 plus $13.73 in CRT fees.
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