Ottawa families fear being stranded as Air Canada cancels flights ahead of possible strike

With Air Canada flight attendants preparing to strike, overseas travellers say they have questions about getting home. CTV’s Kimberley Fowler reports.

Chaos is unfolding at airports across the country. On Thursday, Air Canada announced it is cancelling hundreds of flights ahead of a possible strike by its flight attendants on Saturday.

That is leaving some passengers without a flight out of Ottawa, and others possibly stranded abroad.

“We want to get back to Ottawa. That’s where home is,” says Marrissa Kerr. She’s on a once-in-a-lifetime trip with her mother, Natalie Dulude, in Paris, France. Their return flight back to Ottawa has now hit some major turbulence.

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“It’s only just the two of us,” says Kerr. “This was meant to be a birthday trip for me. This is the first time my mom has ever come to Europe at all. I wanted to plan this as a surprise trip for her to join me for my birthday here, and the trip’s been completely ruined because of this.”

Their return flight back to Ottawa has now hit some major turbulence.

“We are meant to leave Saturday at noon. We received an email from Air Canada not telling us that our flight’s been canceled but telling us that we are very highly at risk of the flight being canceled… We’re just left in the dark at this point here,” says Kerr.

As required by Air Passenger Protection Regulations, Air Canada says if your flight is cancelled for a labour dispute, they will work to rebook you, free of charge, on the next available flight to your destination operated by any carrier. Travel experts say passengers whose flights are cancelled will also receive a full refund, but it’s unlikely the airline will be able to rebook many flights.

“That’s the frustrating part of all this,” says Dulude, “We really are in limbo because they say, ‘Don’t book something else until you know for sure that it’s been canceled.’ Now we’ve only gotten a ‘You’re at risk’… What do we do?”

Air Canada customers like Kerr and Dulude who are looking to rebook flights are likely facing much higher costs.

“We’ve looked at Air France; that was starting at something like $5,500. There’s Air Transat; that’s also $5,500,” says Kerr.

The airline offered them a refund of just over $325 on a round trip that cost them about $3,700. They will also need to pay for accommodations in Paris if they are required to rebook their flight back to Ottawa on another date.

Other Air Canada travelers departing from Ottawa International Airport are concerned about the impacts of the possible strike.

Emma MacEachern is visiting family in Lebanon.

“We’re not worried about getting there. (We are) definitely worried about coming back. We have plans when we get back, so hopefully it doesn’t disrupt much, but we’ll see how it goes.” MacEachern said. “We could stay with family, but it would definitely be an inconvenience. But hopefully we get back on time.”

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Melanie Branch, who is moving with her family to Australia, says their flight out of Ottawa is with Air Canada and connecting with another airline to Australia.

“We just got in, in the nick of time,” she said. “We’re glad we’re flying United on the big one to Australia because we were concerned that if you were flying Air Canada from the west coast to Australia, that would have been more likely to be cancelled.”

Air Canada and the union representing 10,000 of its flight attendants still have not returned to the bargaining table. A key sticking point for the union is unpaid work. Flight attendants are only paid once the plane is in the air, and not during boarding, deplaning or pre-flight safety checks.