Travelers who had the unpleasant surprise of seeing flights to Winnipeg being postponed several times over the weekend at Pearson airport had to resort to sleeping on the ground on yoga mats provided by Air Canada.
• Read also: Canadians change their travel plans
• Read also: Welcome to summer vacation hell
Several passengers on flights scheduled to depart for Winnipeg at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. respectively on Saturday told CBC News of their mishap.
Among them, Fatima Sherafa, a 17-year-old woman, told national television that her flight scheduled for 3 p.m. had been repeatedly postponed until midnight, when it was finally cancelled.
However, instead of receiving food vouchers and hotel nights, passengers had to make do with yoga mats provided by Air Canada to spend the night sleeping on the ground at Pearson airport, a she asserted.
Other passengers on that flight and a second canceled flight also told CBC that they received no compensation, other than yoga mats to sleep on at the airport.
“We called five or six hotels and they were all full. […] Everyone was just on the ground, “said Julie Yumin, who assured that the employees of the company distributed mats when she asked if there was a way to have beds to sleep on.
Air Canada is hit hard by the lack of manpower and the resumption of air traffic, two phenomena that forced it to cancel thousands of flights in July and August.