A class action lawsuit has been filed against Air Canada on behalf of travelers who experienced flight delays or cancellations due to a lack of flight attendants. And this time, they denounce a very specific situation, namely the fact that the air carrier refused to pay them compensation by qualifying the situation as a “security problem”.
The action was filed in the Montreal courthouse in December and targets both Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge and Jazz Aviation.
The one proposing to take this action is Michèle Dussault, a resident of Carignan, Montérégie, who had to travel with five members of her family from Montreal to New Jersey in order to board a cruise ship in destination Bermuda in the summer of 2022. The flight she had chosen was due to land in Newark the day before boarding the ship.
En route to the Montreal airport, the family received a text message from Air Canada advising them that their flight was canceled due to “lack of staff”, the application alleged.
According to his allegations, the airline automatically reserved seats for them on two different flights.
Fearing further cancellations, and absolutely needing to arrive in time for the cruise’s departure, the family “took matters into their own hands” and drove to the US airport where they were expected.
They claim that they have not been reimbursed for their tickets, and that their claim for compensation has been denied, since the flight was canceled for “security reasons”.
Air Canada failed to meet its contractual obligations, it is alleged.
According to the airline ticket purchase contract, a passenger is not eligible for compensation if the delay or cancellation was caused by a reason “outside the control of the carrier (for example, war or disaster nature) or for safety reasons”, for example in case of dangerous weather conditions.
The lack of crew is most of the time a foreseeable circumstance for the carrier and over which it has control, except in cases of force majeure, it is alleged in the procedure.
The plaintiff relies in particular on a 2021 decision of the Canadian Transportation Agency which ruled that “lack of crew is part of regular operations and must be anticipated and planned. »
Air Canada decided that flights canceled due to undermanning would all qualify as “safety issues” to avoid having to pay compensation to passengers, the class action lawsuit reads.
This is why the action is claiming for each of the passengers who have suffered a flight cancellation or delay since December 15, 2019, the compensation provided for in the contract, in addition to compensatory damages and $1,000 in punitive damages.
None of the facts alleged in this action have yet been proven in court, and the action itself has not yet been given the green light by a judge. This step would allow him to go ahead and go to trial where the liability of the carrier and the affiliated companies will be decided.
Air Canada indicated that it had received a copy of the request for authorization of the class action, but did not want to indicate what its means of defense would be.