Federal Court of Appeal upholds decision to boost accessibility at Air Canada

An Air Canada plane takes off from Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld a decision by the country’s transport regulator that aims to boost accessibility for air travellers living with a disability.

A judicial tribunal dismissed an appeal by Air Canada, which took issue with one of the accommodations it was ordered to provide for passengers whose wheelchairs are too large to fit through the cargo doors of some aircraft, saying it was too onerous for the airline.

• Read more from 2016 on Tim Rose’s case

The ruling Friday marks the culmination of a case that has dragged on since 2016, when respondent Tim Rose was told his power wheelchair would not fit on an aircraft, preventing him from travelling to Ohio as planned.

After a series of decisions, the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled in 2023 that Air Canada must find passengers with disabilities a similar flight on a comparable route or, if that’s not possible, swap in a plane that is capable of carrying the mobility device.

Air Canada appealed the swap-in requirement last year. But Justice Wyman Webb rejected the airline’s arguments: “Air Canada did not establish that it would suffer undue hardship if it had to substitute an aircraft.”

In January 2024, Air Canada said it accepted most of the agency’s orders to remove barriers, including the obligation to find a plane that takes off within a day of the desired travel date, as long as the customer makes the request three weeks in advance.

But it took issue with a key provision. It argued the requirement to sub in planes with larger cargo doors — some are just over two-and-a-half feet high, while many power wheelchairs can be collapsed only to a height of three feet — marks an “undue hardship” for the carrier, putting it at a competitive disadvantage.

“The agency fails to consider factors such as impact of an ad hoc substitution of an aircraft on overall safety and quality of service to all other passengers within Air Canada’s network,” the carrier added in court filings.

On Friday, Webb ruled that Air Canada failed to lay out how the transportation agency erred in gauging what constitutes “undue hardship” on the airline.

The regulator had noted the company deploys spare planes “on a daily basis” in response to everything from inclement weather to mechanical issues, and so should occasionally be able to do the same for accessibility.

“Because Air Canada regularly substitutes aircraft in the case of irregular operations, it is unlikely that doing so to accommodate a person with a disability would have a significant impact on the rights of other passengers or Air Canada’s ability to provide customer service,” the agency said in its 2023 decision, cited by Webb.

Rose called Friday’s ruling a victory for the whole disability community.

“I just want to be able to travel like anyone else,” the respondent said in a phone interview, noting he felt “relief” upon learning the outcome.

“If Air Canada flies to a certain destination, they shouldn’t only fly there for people that are able-bodied.

“This isn’t a small airline without the resources to do anything about it. This is our national carrier who proudly talks about flying people with disabilities to Paralympic events,” Rose said, adding that he hoped other airlines would adopt the plane substitution policy.

Air Canada did not respond to a request for comment.

The ruling is the latest milestone in a long legal journey.

In the summer of 2016, Rose was informed he could not book a flight from Toronto to Cleveland — “ironically enough, to give a presentation about disability awareness in big business,” he told The Canadian Press last year.

“When I told the representative on the Air Canada medical desk that this was discriminatory, she said, ‘No, your wheelchair’s just like a piece of luggage. If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit.’

“It’s my mobility. You would not call someone’s legs luggage,” said Rose, an accessibility consultant who lives with cerebral palsy. “In this case, they didn’t even let my legs on the plane.”

In 2022, a transportation agency tribunal found that he and all people who use larger mobility aids face “undue obstacles” to mobility at Air Canada. The decision came after a drawn-out back-and-forth between the two parties, a 2019 decision establishing there were hurdles to mobility but not necessarily undue ones, and a COVID-induced pause on proceedings.

In late 2023, Air Canada said it would speed up a three-year accessibility plan after a number of reports of passenger mistreatment, including an incident where a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off of an airplane in Las Vegas due to a lack of assistance.

“Air Canada recognizes the challenges customers with disabilities encounter when they fly and accepts its responsibility to provide convenient and consistent service so that flying with us becomes easier. Sometimes we do not meet this commitment, for which we offer a sincere apology,” said chief executive Michael Rousseau in November 2023.

The measures in the airline’s plan range from establishing a customer accessibility director to consistently boarding passengers who request lift assistance first. Air Canada has also implemented annual, recurrent training in accessibility — such as how to use an eagle lift — for its 10,000 airport employees and included mobility aids in an app that can track baggage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 25, 2025.