Air Canada walks back compensation denials after thousands delayed due to tech issues

MONTREAL –

Air Canada says it made a mistake in rejecting some compensation claims from the hundreds of travellers affected by delayed flights resulting from laptop malfunctions.

In messages to some prospects, the airline initially mentioned the data know-how fumble was out of its fingers, relieving it of obligations to pay them compensation.

“In this instance, the compensation you are requesting does not apply because the disruption was caused by an event outside of our control. This flight is delayed due to an unforeseen technology issue, impacting one of our suppliers, which is impacting our operations,” the airline mentioned Thursday in an e-mail to passenger Douglas Judson.

Judson mentioned he arrived greater than three hours late after his June 1 flight from Winnipeg to Toronto was delayed because of the IT defect.

“I find the dishonesty and disrespect of it the most galling,” he mentioned in a cellphone interview. “Some really interesting logic puzzles at Air Canada as to when something is actually their fault.”

While denying his compensation request, Air Canada provided him a 15 per cent fare low cost on any upcoming flight as a “goodwill gesture.”

When contacted by The Canadian Press on Friday, the Montreal-based airline mentioned the response stemmed from an error.

“Air Canada is offering compensation in line with APPR (Air Passenger Protection Regulations) compensation levels for flights which were affected by the IT outage. Some passengers had received erroneous responses from us, and we are in the process of re-contacting them with the correct responses,” spokeswoman Angela Mah acknowledged.

The nation’s largest service has struggled with intermittent laptop issues over the previous few weeks.

On May 25 it delayed greater than half its flights resulting from a “technical issue” with the system that the airline makes use of to speak with plane and monitor their efficiency. On June 1 it delayed or cancelled greater than 500 flights — over three-quarters of its journeys that day, in line with monitoring service FlightAware — resulting from “IT issues.”

That similar day, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra careworn the service’s compensation tasks to its visitors.

“Air Canada has obligations to passengers who are impacted because it is caused by things that the airline has control over,” he advised reporters June 1, hours after the IT points resurfaced.

Alghabra spokeswoman Nadine Ramadan mentioned in an e-mail Friday the minister’s workplace had been in contact with the corporate, which assured them it’ll compensate the affected passengers.

Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group, mentioned the airline’s response “rings hollow.”

“We are hearing about too many of these ‘errors’ to believe that it was a genuine error,” he mentioned in an e-mail.

Lukacs instructed Air Canada’s response — together with the discounted fare supply — marked “an attempt to make passengers go away and not pursue their rights.”

It was not clear whether or not the hundreds of passengers whose flights have been delayed or cancelled the day after the June 1 laptop drawback — Judson’s included — resulting from what the airline deemed “rollover effects” would obtain compensation.

“They said in their official communications to passengers that it was maintenance. I do not believe it was maintenance. I think it was a direct consequence of their IP issues,” Judson mentioned, noting that his return flight to Winnipeg landed greater than three hours delayed.

Air Canada’s Mah mentioned the airline would “investigate to determine the root cause of the cancellation and handle accordingly.”

At least 144 of its flights, or 27 per cent of the airline’s scheduled load, had been delayed as of late afternoon on June 2, together with 33 cancellations, in accordance FlightAware.

In April, Alghabra laid out measures to toughen penalties and tighten loopholes round traveller compensation as a part of a proposed overhaul of Canada’s passenger rights constitution.

If handed as a part of the finances invoice, the reforms will put the onus on airways to indicate a flight disruption is brought on by security issues or causes exterior their management, with particular examples to be drawn up by the Canadian Transportation Agency as a listing of exceptions round compensation.

“It will no longer be the passenger who will have to prove that he or she is entitled to compensation. It will now be the airline that will need to prove that it does not have to pay for it,” Alghabra mentioned on April 24.

Currently, a passenger is entitled to between $125 and $1,000 in compensation for a three-hour-plus delay or a cancellation made inside 14 days of the scheduled departure — until the disruption stems from occasions exterior the airline’s management, comparable to climate or a security subject together with mechanical issues. The quantity varies relying on the dimensions of the service and size of the delay.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed June 8, 2023.