People wait in lines at Pearson Airport on Friday, ahead of a potential strike by Air Canada flight attendants.Mariya Postelnyak/The Globe and Mail
A small crowd gathered inside the Air Canada terminal in Toronto Pearson Airport on Friday, even as many departures ground to a halt ahead of a potential strike by the carrier’s flight attendants Saturday.
Anxious travellers lined up in neat, but snaking rows to the check-in counter, some with passport and luggage in tow hoping to fly out even with odds stacked against them.
Many came empty-handed, looking for an opportunity to speak to someone in person about their cancelled flights after hours spent on hold trying to reach Air Canada staff by phone without resolution.
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Ollie Wensink and Neeve Hodgson had a scheduled flight home to London on Saturday after wrapping up a visit with family in Canada. But the pair came to the airport a day early after they couldn’t reach airline staff by phone or online for information about their flight.
There’s more than money at stake for the couple. Mr. Wensink has scheduled shoulder surgery in days that he may miss as a result of the delay.
But the cost of a new flight was eye-watering.
“We looked to change our flight today and it was $6,000,” Ms. Hodgson said. “A lot of what’s left is business class.”
At the end of a long line toward one Air Canada counter, Laura Thompson and Steve Roy were checking their phone for flights to Istanbul. The couple was supposed to be heading to the city on an Air Canada flight with a connection to Turkey on Friday evening.
Instead, they’d already spent hours at Pearson corralled from one line to the next trying to rebook their trip after Air Canada staff told them on the phone that no other tickets were available.
“We look online and there’s tons for $3,000, $6,000, $7,000 via other routes,” Ms. Thompson said. Her partner, Mr. Roy, showed The Globe several flight bookings that were available for the same time window.
Mr. Roy’s cellphone showing alternate flights after he was told by Air Canada that none were available to rebook his trip.Mariya Postelnyak/The Globe and Mail
In an e-mail to The Globe on Friday night, Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said capacity on other carriers is limited due to the summer travel peak. “We understand our customers’ concerns and frustrations, but as you can appreciate, with the volume of customers affected growing exponentially this process does take time,” he said.
He was unable to comment on the specific information the couple had received.
Ms. Thompson and Mr. Roy said they plan to stay at the airport as long as it took to speak to someone. A lot is at stake – the long-waited trip to Istanbul, included tours and hotels worth nearly $10,000.
Instead of a replacement ticket, the couple has so far only received a $15 food voucher sent to Mr. Roy by Air Canada.
Parents with kids sat behind mountains of luggage waiting for their turn to speak to an Air Canada representative. A big concern for many was the risk of missing the first days of school.
Simon Seitz from Switzerland was visiting her son, who lives in Canada with two young daughters. They came to the airport after Air Canada cancelled her Friday flight in hopes of getting answers.
“They have school on Monday,” she said. “We were really positive, thinking actually because our flight should be today, not on Saturday when everything got cancelled … now I don’t know, I [may] sleep in here.”
Many hoped to see if the airline would rebook them on one of the few competitor flights, whose prices have been soaring given the last-minute nature as well as growing demand.
Katherine Twaddle, who came to Canada from Britain for the Stratford theatre festival, said she is avoiding accepting a refund from Air Canada for her cancelled flight back to London. She worries it would forfeit her right to a rebooking.
But so far, she hasn’t had luck getting either, and came to the airport for answers.
“All they’re giving us is a leaflet saying you have to organize it yourself,” she said.
She may be stuck for a week, paying for hotels, she said. “I have to get home somehow.”
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In other Canadian cities and airports, thousands were in the same boat, waiting for answers while mulling over the idea of spending more cash on new tickets, in the hopes it would get them home or reunite them with loved ones.
Nancy Ng from Toronto has been stranded in Saskatchewan where she went to visit family. Now, she risks missing another reunion with relatives from New York whose visit to Toronto was months in the making.
“These are aunts and uncles who I’ve known since childhood but have not seen them since pre-COVID. … We are spread across Canada and U.S. and Hong Kong and me and my immediate family are the only ones in Toronto,” she said. “I’m acutely aware that our time is precious.”
Booking with another airline is not in the cards. “It’s $1,300 per [one-way] ticket. … We’re a family of four people, I can’t afford a $5,000 one day trip.”
Geoff White, executive director and general counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, said that even if the dispute between Air Canada and its union resolves immediately, much of the damage is done.
“People driving across the country or paying cancellation fees for rental cars, cancelled business trips, conferences – the ripple effects are huge here,” he said.
“This problem has gotten out of hand and it’s way too late for the government to fix it,” he said. “We’re beholden to a dominant carrier.”
The impasse between Air Canada and the union representing 10,000 of its flight attendants came to a head on Wednesday when the union issued a 72-hour strike notice. Air Canada responded with a lockout notice shortly thereafter.
In total, a complete shutdown of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operations is set to affect about 130,000 passengers’ travel plans daily, Air Canada officials said in a release Wednesday.