The atmosphere is imbued with uncertainty at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) for Air Canada customers who hope to be able to take their flight while the strike of on -board agents started on Friday continues on Monday.
Many travelers complain about the lack of communication from the company. This is the case for this Australian retiree, Mike Antao, who does not know where he will accommodate this evening with his wife. His wife worries because she may lack medication if she cannot go home to Sydney.
This is also the case for this Norwegian teacher, Sølvi, who saw her flight for Oslo canceled after receiving an email who had asked her to register or this Chinese family who was to return to Shanghai, whose grandmother had to undergo medical examinations, but to whom no solution was proposed.
The situation is also confused outside the country for travelers who had to return home.
This is the case of Maude Gagnon, a journalist from Radio-Canada on a trip to Europe, who was to reset to London to return to Vancouver: For the moment, the air Canada email only tells us to wait three days to rebook ourselves in another flight […] Our options are either to wait for them to do it or to cancel our flight and receive a refund.
Again, Air Canada offers no compensation for the time spent on site.
At Vancouver airport and outside the country, many testimonies explain that Air Canada offers no accommodation or convenience solution while waiting. The air carrier believes that the factors that led to the strike are not its responsibility.
A person consults the departure table while the Air Canada on -board agents are on strike (archive photo)
Photo: Canadian press / Graham Hughes
649 flights canceled since Friday
Since the start of the Air Canada staff strike on Friday, 649 flights have been canceled at Vancouver airport, 20 % of weekend flights, and 15 % of Monday flights, according to Stephen Smart, director of communication for the airport authority.
Air Canada passengers should not go to the airport, unless their flight has been confirmed.
The airport specifies that the flights of other airlines, as well as Jazz Aviation and Air Canada Express are not affected.
The Air Canada conflict does not affect other companies at Vancouver Airport.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Jean-Baptiste Lasaygues
According to Jacob Charbonneau, CEO and co -founder of the Vernretard.ca site (new window)the situation is chaotic for passengers: During the weekend, people still received registration notices to prepare for the flight, and there, the flight is canceled […] People trying to reach Air Canada will wait until eight hours on the phone, and the agencies are overwhelmed.
This observation is shared by Gábor Lukács, president of the AirPassengerrights.ca site (new window)
According to him, Air Canada’s communication is complicated: We have seen passengers who have received inaccurate email from Air Canada who fraudulently explain them that they are not able to record them on other flights,
What the company is however required to do because of the Montreal Convention, which governs this type of situation.
For some people, the cancels of cancellation, or replacement of tickets for passengers are simply prohibitive.
As an example, Eddy Leewhich was to return from Calgary to Vancouver on August 27 with his family, had to cancel his tickets, which cost him $ 630. Jacob Charbonneau de Volenretard.ca reports the case of a father and his two children in Portugal, the invoice of which jumped $ 6,700 after the cancellation of their return flight to Air Canada.
For Maude Gagnon This is a lot of uncertainty, not to know if we are going to come back tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, in a week, we don’t know at all, and we can just take our pain in patience.
With information from Rosanna Tiranti, Corentin Mittet-Magnan and the Phare Ouest program
