Canada’s transport regulator says WestJet is imposing an “undue barrier” on travellers living with a disability by effectively barring some power wheelchairs from its planes. The Canadian Transportation Agency says that, before July 2027, the country’s second-largest carrier must scrap its 300-pound weight cap on mobility aids on the vast majority of its aircraft. The regulator says WestJet should use what are called spreader plates to better distribute the wheelchair’s weight in the cargo hold, and arrange alternative travel with other airlines until then. The case was brought before the transportation agency by Winnipeg resident Steven Fletcher, a former federal minister of state for transport, after he was stopped from flying with his custom wheelchair on a flight between Winnipeg and Toronto early last year. He and other advocates say the weight cap has curtailed air travel in parts of the country and discriminated against people living with a disability. WestJet says it has no comment as parts of the matter remain before the regulator, which is poised to hand down a final decision on how much advance notice passengers using mobility aids must provide the airline. Last year, WestJet argued that the weight limit was key to flight safety and that accessibility regulations allowed it to refuse transport of heavier mobility aids. WestJet landed on the 300-pound threshold in 2024 after a technical analysis, which examined the “maximum allowable weight limit per square inch for the cargo holds” of its Boeing-made planes, according to a submission in response to a regulatory complaint filed by Fletcher. In an interview this week, Fletcher said the rule has marginalized some disabled Canadians, and that the regulator’s decision signals good news. “They have stigmatized and alienated and excluded an entire population of Canadians — through no fault of their own — just because of some arbitrary number which doesn’t hold up,” he said. No other major North American airline maintains such a low cap for Boeing 737 jets or similar-sized planes, according to John Morris, founder of U.S.-based WheelchairTravel.org. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2026. Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
