Low-cost airline facing backlash for last-minute flight cancellations

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This article was published 28/08/2019 (2225 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An ultra-low-cost airline faces a backlash again this summer for last-minute flight cancellations that have affected hundreds of passengers, including many travelling to and from Winnipeg.

Michelle Vanderlip was preparing to return to Winnipeg from Kelowna, B.C. on Monday, when her airline, Swoop, informed her the flight would be delayed due to unscheduled maintenance.

The Calgary-based airline, which is owned by WestJet, ultimately cancelled the flight and booked Vanderlip on a plane departing the next day. However, late Monday night, Vanderlip received a message from Swoop saying she was re-booked onto a flight on Sept. 2 — an entire week after she was supposed to fly home.

Vanderlip tried calling customer service, but said it wasn’t available until 7 a.m. Tuesday.

After being on hold for two hours, Vanderlip said the customer service representative suggested she pay for a ticket with another airline, or try to arrange plans to stay family or friends until her flight departs.

“It’s just unbelievable to me that a company can treat people like that,” Vanderlip told Global News in B.C. “(People) can’t be away from home for that long with jobs, careers, kids — school starting. And the money that people are putting out.”

Eerily similar situations happened to people trying to fly out of Winnipeg as well.

Lori Nelson told the Free Press her daughter, Teresa Nelson, and Teresa’s partner, Scott, were on their way to Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport to catch a Monday flight to Abbotsford, B.C., before travelling over 70 km west to Vancouver where they live.

An hour before takeoff, they received a message from Swoop, saying the flight was cancelled.

According to Nelson, who lives in Winnipeg, the couple was told the cancellation was due to mechanical issues. But Teresa and Scott were booked for a Tuesday flight.

“They got up the next morning and found out that the flight had been changed to Sept. 6,” Nelson said, adding that the two stayed overnight with her. Then they were told that the flights were cancelled for Winnipeg, this whole week,” she said.

Nelson said the couple dished out $700 each for plane tickets on another airline in order to fly to Abbotsford later that day, with no guarantee of compensation from the airline.

Last month, the Canadian Transportation Agency implemented new federal air passenger protection regulations in an attempt to reduce customer confusion by clearly laying out compensation amounts and treatment standards for mishaps such as overbooking, lost baggage and tarmac delays.

Unfortunately, new rules regarding cancelled and delayed flights won’t take effect until mid-December.

The current regulations by the CTA say Swoop must keep the passengers updated on flight status, “meet the standards of treatment,” and re-book passengers. However, there is ambiguity as to whether the airline must compensate.

According to the CTA, Swoop’s domestic tariff says it is obligated to re-book on other carriers if Swoop is unable to re-book passengers on its own services, within “a reasonable amount of time”.

Gábor Lukács, an air passenger rights activist, says Swoop is not holding up its end of the bargain by not booking flights on other airlines for affected passengers.

Lukács said the airline would not have do so “because it’s simpler” and less expensive, “but (Swoop) didn’t realize their passengers actually have a voice and that they were going to complain about it.

Swoop did not respond to the Free Press’ request for comment before deadline. However, the airline told Global News there was unscheduled maintenance to the aircraft and that Swoop has “all our available resources working to get travellers to their destinations as quickly and safely as possible.”

The company estimated that about 1,000 passengers in its network were impacted by the cancelled flight.

The company promised to reimburse impacted travellers if they purchased tickets from other airlines and to cover additional travel costs. “Any travellers delayed more than three hours have received meal, hotel and transportation vouchers,” Swoop said in an e-mail

Come December, airlines will have to pay cash compensation for delays and cancellations of more than three hours within the carrier’s control, and airlines will be required to re-book and/or refund travel that is delayed or cancelled, depending on the circumstances.

This latest round of flight cancellations from Swoop mirrors an occurence last month.

Less than two weeks into July, airline cancelled 30 flights due to unscheduled aircraft maintenance. This affected flights to Winnipeg, Hamilton, Ont. and Orlando, Fla., and forced customers to pay out-of-pocket to rearrange travel plans.

Customers let their displeasure known, as the CTA received 19 complaints concerning cancelled Swoop flights within the first two weeks of July. Since then, the CTA has received 38 more complaints about the airline.

nicholas.frew@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @n_frew