A Nanaimo woman is calling upon YVR and Flair Airlines to improve their treatment of people with disabilities after a disappointing experience.
Angela Taylor, 74, has a prosthetic leg and uses crutches to walk short distances. Taylor says when she landed at the Vancouver International Airport on Friday after a trip to Puerto Valarta, she was left in a wheelchair at her arrival gate with no help from airline or YVR airport staff.
Taylor says she felt abandoned, helpless and disrespected.
“I would like to see disabled people respected,” she said. “This is not a way to treat people.”
Angela Taylor says she felt abandoned by YVR and Flair Airlines after no one showed up to help escort her from her plane to her luggage. (CityNews Image)
Taylor says prior to her flight on Friday she requested her airline provide her with mobility assistance from the arrival gate to customs. She says when she arrived at YVR, the airline told her a driver would be coming to pick her up. But she says after waiting almost an hour, no one showed up.
“It was getting close to midnight and I had to go. So I started walking and never saw anybody,” Taylor said. “None of the people movers were working, it was a very long long way.”
Taylor says after her experience, she would like both Flair airlines and YVR airport to have better services for people with disabilities. She adds the walk from the gate to customs and luggage pick up was very painful for her.
“That whole distance was darkened and it was an empty space,” she said. “I felt vulnerable and abandoned.”
CityNews reached out to YVR for a response to Taylor’s concerns, but the airport says it’s unable to give a complete response until Tuesday.
“It is deeply concerning to learn about the challenges faced by this traveller while navigating our airport,” it said. “We take concerns like this extremely seriously and are actively working to identify the root cause of this service gap.”
Taylor says someone at the airport told her each airline is responsible for its own wheelchair passengers.
“Flair obviously dropped the ball, but there was no safety net. There was no one for me to call,” she said.
In statement to CityNews, Flair says it will be working to rectify this situation promptly.
“We understand Ms. Taylor’s experience did not meet our usual standards, and we are very sorry for that. We are currently investigating the specifics to better understand the events that transpired,” the airline said.
A Flair spokesperson says the airline’s customer service team will be reaching out to Taylor directly.
Angela Taylor says she felt abandoned by YVR and Flair Airlines after no one showed up to help escort her from her plane to her luggage. (CityNews Image)
Taylor says having to walk through the airport was uncomfortable, as she has very limited walking capacity with her crutches.
“I was run over by a car in 1966, so I’m an above knee amputee,” she said. “During the accident, my back was crushed. I did a backward roll underneath the car.”
Taylor says she would like to see YVR offer more services improve its accessibility due to the airport’s vast size.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
