Canada‘s second-major airline has left tens of thousands of passengers stranded and scrambling for answers after it canceled hundreds of flights over the holiday weekend.
Calgary-based WestJet announced Saturday morning that it would cancel more than 400 flights through Sunday – affecting nearly 50,000 customers – as it struggles to reach an agreement with the Aircraft Mechanical Fraternal Association, which voted to strike Friday night and prompted hundreds of employees to walk off the job.
The airline canceled an additional 410 flights overnight, for a total of more than 800 canceled flights by Sunday.
WestJet will now continue to cancel flights to reduce its operating fleet from about 200 aircrafts to just about 30 through the weekend, as thousands of travelers try to get away before Canada Day on July 1.
WestJet left nearly 50,000 passengers scrambling after it canceled more than 800 flights over the weekend
The Aircraft Mechanical Fraternal Association, which voted to strike Friday night and prompted hundreds of employees to walk off the job
Passengers at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport described how they arrived at Terminal 3 to get answers and get rescheduled onto another flight – only to be met with silence from airline officials.
Villamor Torres and Mary Jane Herrera said they went to the airport after struggling to rebook their flight to the Cayman Islands over the phone.
They recounted how they were all set to travel on Saturday when they received an email at around 9.40am notifying them that the flight was canceled.
‘We’re trying to figure out what to do,’ Herrera told The Globe and Mail.
‘We’re in the middle of getting a new flight, but they said if we get a new flight they won’t compensate us.’
Amy Morris, visiting Canada for the first time from Atlanta, Georgia, also described the situation as ‘chaos.’
Passengers have described how they left without answers after their flights were canceled over the holiday weekend
‘We had a hiking trip planned tomorrow in Banff, we lost the entire first day at least,’ she said. ‘It’s not a great introduction to Canada.’
She said her family of four was headed to Calgary when they learned of their flight cancelation on a connecting flight to Toronto.
‘We’re getting no information from WestJet at all – they said within a couple of hours we’ll get a reassignment, but we’ve heard nothing.
‘It was [our] last family vacation,’ Morris added. ‘The kids are moving out of state and it was supposed to be our last hurrah.’
Matt Estrada claimed online he was forced to buy a hotel room after his flight was canceled
Liam Stein also claimed that his wedding in Mexico was ruined due to the flight cancelations
Others have taken to X to express their frustrations with the airline, including Liam Stein – who claimed that his ‘wedding in Mexico is ruined due to your incompetence to mitigate this strike.
‘Tens of thousands of dollars gone because you cannot swallow your pride and save the biggest travel week of the year,’ he posted on Saturday.
‘WestJet will never recover from this incompetence.’
Matt Estrada also said he was forced to spend $451 on a hotel room because his flight was canceled – and claimed WestJet would not cover the costs of the accommodation because the strikes are ‘unplanned.’
‘Kind of like an act of God, they say,’ he wrote, adding that there are ‘zero rental cars available as well.’
Meanwhile, Samin Sahan and Samee Jan said they were planning to leave Saturday with extended family on a trip to Calgary when they received an email that their flight had been rescheduled for Monday.
They said they decided to go to the airport anyway, seeking clarification and hoping they could get on an earlier flight, but have not gotten any answers.
‘This inaction is hurting a lot of people, their own company as well as their customers who will likely no longer be their customers ever again,’ Sahan said.
WestJet will continue to cull its fleet as the contract negotiations continue
It will operate just 30 of its aircrafts, out of its fleet of about 200
One of the striking mechanics outside of Toronto’s Pearson Airport said it regrets any inconvenience to passengers.
‘However, the reason they [the passengers] have possibly missed a flight or had to cancel is due to the reason that WestJet is not respectfully sitting down at the table and negotiating,’ Sean McVeigh said.
‘We take a lot of responsibility and we would just like to be appreciated financially.’
The Aircraft Mechanical Fraternal Association has claimed that WestJet’s ‘unwillingness’ to negotiate made the strike inevitable and accused the airline of insinuating retaliatory action against union members.
WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech, meanwhile, blamed the situation on a ‘rogue union from the US’ that is trying to make inroads in Canada.
He claimed that the union rejected an offer that would have made the airline mechanics the ‘best paid in the country.’
The Aircraft Mechanical Fraternal Association has claimed that WestJet’s ‘unwillingness’ to negotiate made the strike inevitable
Von Hoensbroech also said that as far as the airline was concerned, bargaining with the union came to an end once Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to resolve the contract dispute through binding arbitration – a process in which a third-party deliberates on the terms.
The board ordered the contract to be finalized through arbitration on Friday, but noted that O’Regan’s referral ‘does not have the effect of suspending the right to strike or lockout.’
‘This makes a strike totally absurd, because the reason you actually do a strike is because you need to exercise pressure on the bargaining table,’ Von Hoensbroech said.
‘If there is no bargaining table, it makes no sense – there shouldn’t be a strike.’
WestJet President Diedrik Pen also said the airline was ‘extremely outraged’ at the union and would hold it ‘100 percent accountable for the unnecessary stress and costs incurred as a result,’ according to The Globe and Mail.
WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech blamed the situation on a ‘rogue union from the US’ that is trying to make inroads in Canada
On Saturday, Minister O’Regan said he met with representatives from both WestJet and the union, and told them they needed to work together ‘to resolve their differences and get their first agreement done.’
The two parties were set to reconvene with a mediator on Sunday, Bret Ostreich, the president of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association told Reuters.
‘All we want to do is go back to the table,’ he said, vowing that ‘the strike will be in effect until we get an agreement.’
In the meantime, Gabor Lokacs, a Canadian air passenger rights advocate, says WestJet has a legal obligation to provide passengers with canceled flights a reasonable and speedy alternative.
‘Under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, they need to reschedule you on another airline or buy a ticket from a competitor,’ he told The Globe and Mail, adding that the airline should do so within the first few hours after a flight is canceled.
‘If WestJet is not reachable for several hours, they are not fulfilling their obligation,’ he said.
Lokacs now recommends that passengers who cannot reach the airline or are not offered an alternative travel plan book a flight at their own expense – and send WestJet the bill.
Most importantly, though, he said, ‘they should document every message and exchange with the airline.’