Travellers ‘beyond frustrated’ by WestJet cancellations, advocate says compensation in order

Travelers say WestJet has cancelled flights due to cold weather. Jeremy Thompson has the latest.

A wave of WestJet cancellations has been leaving travellers at the Edmonton International Airport (YEG) feeling angry.

Since Monday, WestJet has cancelled more than 130 flights across the country.

Donna Leslie said she was already on the way to the airport Tuesday night when she saw her 8:45 p.m. WestJet flight had been cancelled and rescheduled for 8 a.m. the next day.

She paid for a hotel nearby and arrived at 6 a.m. Wednesday to check in, but found her flight had been cancelled again.

“So I rebooked, and I’ll be sitting here until nine o’clock tonight,” Leslie said. “I’m beyond frustrated.”

The YEG website showed, as of noon, that seven of eight total delayed flights were WestJet, as were all seven cancelled flights.

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In a statement Wednesday, a WestJet representative said “extreme weather” was affecting the airline’s operations and not all guests could be re-booked right away due to limited space on other flights.

WestJet said any passengers who could not be rebooked within 48 hours would be eligible for a full refund of unused portions of their flight, in line with Air Passenger Protection Regulations.

However, in video posted to social media on Tuesday, a WestJet staff member can be seen speaking to passengers at the Calgary International Airport; she tells them the airline won’t be re-booking them and they should contact their travel agents to find flights on other airlines.

Dr. Gábor Lukács, president of Air Passenger Rights, said that’s against the rules.

“When a flight is cancelled, WestJet is required to rebook passengers on its own or partner’s flights within a certain amount of time, or if that’s not possible, to buy passengers tickets on competitor airlines, regardless of whether they have an agreement with that particular airline,” Lukács said.

“We do know for a fact that there were seats available on Air Canada, so WestJet, on its face, has systematically breached its obligations to passengers,” he added.

Trent LaChapelle was supposed to fly from Calgary to Edmonton on Monday. When his flight was cancelled due to weather, he rented a car and drove himself up to catch a Wednesday afternoon flight to Winnipeg.

“Flight cancelled (again),” he said. “They rebooked me for 8:20 tonight, which I guess is OK, but I’ve just been trying to see if I can get a rental car back to Calgary to catch the flight back to Winnipeg from there … it’s been challenging to have the cancellations and then just kind of be left at your (own) device.”

Lukács said -40 C is not unusual weather for Alberta and the airline should expect it. Even if it was, airlines are still obligated to re-book passengers in the 48 timeframe.

“Just recently, WestJet was fined to the tune of $150,000 by the Canadian Transportation Agency for a previous incident in 2024 where it failed to rebook passengers,” Lukács said “This is not a unique incident.

“Unfortunately, the problem is that the fines are way too small. When you have a plane load of passengers and you fine the airline only about $150,000, it is still more profitable for the airline to just continue to disobey the law.”

Lukács encourages travellers to document any cancelled or delayed flights and to stand their ground when it comes to compensation.

He said anyone with a cancelled flight who hasn’t been re-booked within 48 hours can buy a replacement ticket on another airline and send the original airline the bill.

“If they don’t respond, or if they just tell you, ‘We won’t pay for it’ … You just ignore it,” Lukács said. “You give the airline 30 days to do the right thing and pay up. If they don’t, you serve them with small claims court papers.”

More information on air passenger rights can be found on the websites for Air Passenger Protection and the Canadian Transportation Agency.