by Jen Mallia
Last updated: 10:25 AM ET, Tue March 31, 2026
Some Canadian air passengers are asking questions after being told their cancelled flight was due to required aircraft maintenance. Under Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) that means the cancellation is a safety issue and thus not eligible for compensation.
Winnipeg resident Rocky Neufeld shared his story with GoPublic after WestJet conceded its decision to cancel Neufeld’s Edmonton to Fort MacMurray flight last year was a business decision, not a safety issue.
It’s a similar situation to what Tanmay Mehta encountered when travelling from Cancun home to Calgary in January, 2026 on WestJet. Passengers were told the plane could not fly due to "unplanned aircraft maintenance required for safety." After being denied a compensation claim, Mehta checked the flight records. He could see that the plane previously assigned to his flight was still flying that day, completing multiple routes. "I could definitely see that the aircraft was not grounded for maintenance," Mehta told CBC.
Mehta’s compensation claim is still denied, despite the CBC’s review of flight records that show WestJet swapped out the assigned aircraft for a different plane, then cancelled the flight about an hour later, claiming it was for unplanned maintenance.
Swapping the plane out, then cancelling the flight for safety reasons is what Neufeld discovered happened in his case too.
He was on the plane with about 10 other passengers when they were told they had to get off, as the aircraft was needed for another flight. The announcement was followed by an email stating that the cancellation was due to "unplanned aircraft maintenance" required for safety, which didn’t match up with what they had just been told.
Neufeld ended up taking WestJet to small claims court over the issue, where they settled out of court. According to Neufeld, a WestJet lawyer told him another aircraft had broken down, and the company had made a business decision to cancel his flight and reassign the plane to a route with more passengers.
Neufeld says he understands the business choice, but objects to the lack of transparency. "It was just wrong, misrepresenting what happened here," he says.
"Swapping aircraft is permissible," says passenger rights advocate Gábor Lukács. "Refusing to pay passengers compensation on the basis of a shell game with aircraft is fraudulent."
Passengers who find themselves facing a cancellation or delay have to know what questions to ask. Having the information will help make a claim complete, or provide more evidence if it gets denied and you wish to appeal. The Air Passenger Rights website has a checklist of questions to ask if facing an unexpected maintenance delay.
According to the site, If the airline claims that your flight was affected by unexpected maintenance, “the objective of your questions is to ascertain which aircraft it was, whether it was the aircraft assigned to your flight originally, whether it was truly an ‘unexpected’ issue, and whether there was a causal relationship between the issue and the disruption.” For more, please see airpassengerrights.ca.
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