Travellers expressed frustration this week over WestJet’s response after the airline cancelled more than 1,200 flights due to a strike by plane mechanics.
Messages and social media posts from some of the 150,000-plus affected passengers conveyed exasperation over hours spent on hold with customer service, the carrier’s failure to rebook them on other airlines and flight cancellation notices that informed them, “fees may apply.”
Tina McIntosh was set to fly to Kelowna, B.C., from Brandon, Man., last Sunday after her great-grandmother’s funeral. She learned at 10 p.m. the day before departure that the trip had been cancelled.
Her partner’s flight was rebooked for three days after the original takeoff time, while the reservations for her and her daughter were “just completely dropped,” leaving them stranded in Brandon, she said.
Extra costs more than $2,400
After staying on hold for 17 hours over the weekend — she never got through to customer service — the family rented a car, drove 2½ hours to Winnipeg, stayed at a hotel and booked a new flight for Monday, McIntosh said, calling the experience a “fiasco.”
She said the extra costs totalled $2,438.
“It’s been hell to go and have a funeral and deal with all this. I’m exhausted.”
WestJet has repeatedly apologized to customers and said it offered them a refund if they weren’t able to be rebooked within 48 hours, in accordance with Canada’s passenger rights charter.
However, the Air Passenger Protection Regulations also require airlines to book travellers on “the next available flight” from any airline, including competitors, after 48 hours if they turn down the refund — a choice customers say the airline did not give them.
“WestJet was unreachable during the cancellations this past weekend and we had to go $1,400 out of pocket to get back to Calgary from Toronto,” said customer Patrick Socha.
“We may have to take them to Alberta small claims court to receive reimbursement.”
WestJet also said the regulations require no compensation for hotels and meals when travel disruptions are outside of the carrier’s control, such as a strike.
‘Systematically refusing to comply’
Passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs says travellers are entitled to reimbursement for flights they booked with a rival and — in the case of international trips — for hotel, food and other costs, citing the Montreal Convention, a multilateral treaty on compensation for air travellers.
He said the obligation to rebook falls on carriers.
“It’s quite clear that you don’t have to run after the airline,” Lukacs said.
“That’s a clear obligation and WestJet has been systematically refusing to comply with it,” he claimed.
WestJet said it has been doing everything in its power to revamp operations and help travellers.
“Our teams across WestJet are working diligently to support all impacted guests as quickly as possible,” said spokeswoman Madison Kruger in an email.
Some 680 mechanics walked off the job at 5:30 p.m. MT on June 28 despite a directive for binding arbitration by Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan. The country’s labour board ruled that the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association was within its rights to strike, catching WestJet and Ottawa off guard and forcing the Calgary-based company back to the bargaining table with the union.
The two sides reached a deal Sunday night, but not before tens of thousands of Canadians found their travel plans for the Canada Day long weekend upended.
‘Radio silence’
Jamie Greiff said WestJet cancelled her flight home to Calgary from Los Angeles this week “after allowing us to check in and pay for our bag.”
Greiff, who was travelling with her husband, 15-year-old son and one of his friends, said she received a text that they would be rebooked within 48 hours — only to hear “radio silence” from the airline since.
The group managed to book a flight to Seattle, catch an Uber ride to the border, cross on foot and then find a taxi to a car rental outfit to begin the nearly 10-hour drive home.
The extra costs totalled $3,861, not including the baggage fee for the cancelled flight, Greiff said, calling the company “an embarrassment.”
HALIFAX – Chorus Aviation Inc. says its shareholders have voted to approve the sale of the company’s regional aircraft leasing business to HPS Investment Partners.
The Halifax-based company says the $1.9-billion deal was greenlighted by 98.1 per cent of votes cast by shareholders at a special meeting. The transaction needed approval by a two-thirds majority vote.
Chorus also says the waiting period mandated under U.S. legislation has expired and that it has received approval from Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
Chorus announced the sale of its plane leasing business to New York City-based HPS in July for $814 million in cash and $1.1 billion in aircraft debt to be assumed or prepaid by the buyers at closing.
The deal marked a one-eighty for Chorus, which bet big on aircraft leasing just two years earlier by buying London-based plane-leasing outfit Falko Regional Aircraft Ltd.
Chorus, which also provides regional service for Air Canada via Chorus subsidiary Jazz Aviation, says the sale remains subject to the other regulatory approvals and customary conditions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
TORONTO – AGF Management Ltd. says its net income attributable to equity owners totalled $20.3 million in its latest quarter, down from $23.0 million in the same quarter last year.
The investment manager says the profit amounted to 30 cents per diluted share for the quarter which ended on Aug. 31, down from 34 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
Total net revenue for the quarter amounted to $102.0 million, up from $84.0 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, AGF says it earned 37 cents per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 34 cents per diluted share a year ago.
The company says its total assets under management and fee-earning assets totalled $49.7 billion at Aug. 31, up from $42.3 billion a year earlier.
Kevin McCreadie, AGF’s chief executive and chief investment officer, says the company was pleased to see early signs of improvement with positive retail net flows complementing its solid investment performance amid an uncertain economic backdrop and significant market volatility.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
As of January 2024, Canada is home to more than 3,600 recreational cannabis retail shops and this number is increasing annually with a single store to every 10,000 Canadians. The retail sector has been facing multiple challenges and one is surely overabundance of stores within smaller communities. Too many retailers compared to users of cannabis. The use of cannabis has remained relatively the same, while multiple retailers and online sales forces are competing for this marketplace.
Failures within the retail field are not a surprise, as Tokyo Smoke closes its multiple stores, and most shops’ profit margins remain small and diminishing over time. Mass closures may happen within certain provinces such as Ontario where situations of multiple retailers are situated right beside a competitor. Massive amounts of revenue have been collected by provincial governments while these stores remain open to every possible financial flux possible.
The black market remains healthy and profitable. An excuse to legalize pot was to challenge illegal pot sales and make it difficult to sell this pot outside of legal means. 22% of Canadian pot smokers get their supply from the black market. They say the pot tastes better and is slightly less costly. Legal pot management is costly and this cost is passed onto the customer. With gummy sales growing, the cost of management by legal means is difficult and costly too.
It seems the government may need to rethink its policy regarding cannabis and the possibility of legalizing further types of illicit drugs in the future. A total ack of imagination exists within the policy network where old-fashioned prejudice towards addiction and the use of narcotics is seen as criminal and threatening to society. All the while the number of traffic stops due to drivers under the influence of narcotics continues to grow, and the use of drugs by the youthful generation continues to be a problem. A solution to our society’s problems will never come from present-day authorities.
