Air Transat strike averted: Fallout limited with only 18 flight cancellations

Air Transat narrowly avoided a strike this week after reaching a last-minute tentative deal with its 750 pilots, preventing what could have been major disruptions right at the start of the holiday travel season.

Eighteen flights had already been cancelled in a precautionary wind-down as negotiations came down to the final hours, with wages reportedly the last sticking point.

Joining CityNews to break down what this means for travellers and what passengers’ rights are when cancellations happen during labour disputes is Dr. Gábor Lukács, president of Air Passenger Rights.

Air Transat had already cancelled 18 flights as part of a potential strike wind-down. For passengers who were caught in that window, what rights do they have when a cancellation is tied to labour negotiations?

“Labour negotiations are not a labour dispute. They are within the carriers’ control and not required for safety reasons. Air Transat had the pilots available as a labour force. It just made a managerial, organizational, logistic choice to cancel those flights for whatever economic reasons it had.

“Passengers affected by such cancellations are owed not only a rebooking on Air Transat or its partners’ airlines departing within nine hours of original departure or a booking on a competitor’s next available flight, but passengers also have to be provided with a lump sum compensation of $1,000 in cash based on how much they have been delayed as a result of these cancellations. That comes on top of accommodation, lost wages, prepaid expenses that they weren’t able to use as a result.”

On Monday, Air Transat had, in a lead-up to the potential strike on Wednesday, created these flights to bring passengers home early. For those passengers who had to take those flights, change their plans, holidays, maybe miss out on a hotel or n other travel expenses, do they have any rights to ask for compensation from the airline?

“Passengers who returned earlier did not have to take those earlier flights, although it appears that Air Transat may have misrepresented these passengers that they do. That misrepresentation in and of itself is actionable because passengers have lost, as a result, out on the rights they would have had under the APPR. It’s a complex situation somewhat beyond their passenger rights issues because generally the Montreal Convention and the APPR cover situations when you are delayed as a result of a flight cancellation.

“But if the airline forces you to take an earlier flight and you actually fall for that trick, then you may not have much protection. The correct response would have been in such situations, to say ‘this is not the valid rebooking. I don’t accept this. This is not what your obligations are Air Transat. Please honor the ticket that you sold. And if you cancel my flight, please rebook me on the next available flight as the APPR requires explicitly, not an earlier one.’

“It’s a very important note in section 17 of the APPR and section 18 as well. It is the next available flight, not an earlier flight. That’s what the airline has to rebook the passenger on. Passengers who have been damaged as a result may want to consult a lawyer because it is not the flight advancement which is actionable per se here, but the deception that they had to take an earlier flight.”