by Jen Mallia
Last updated: 12:55 PM ET, Wed August 27, 2025
An appeal by WestJet against a Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) ruling that required it to pay $1,000 to a passenger delayed in 2021 has been denied. The ruling sets the stage for delays due to staffing issues to be considered a reason for passenger compensation.
The airline, with Air Canada listed as an “intervener” in the case, had argued the crew shortage (due to a pilot calling in sick) that caused the 21 hour delay for passenger Owen Lareau was a safety issue. As a safety issue, the delay would be exempted from air passenger protection regulations (APPR) requiring airlines to pay compensation to its passengers.
The court ruled WestJet's interpretation would "effectively defeat the consumer protection scheme” designed under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection, and "must be rejected," Justice Gerald Heckman wrote on behalf of the three judge panel. Safety concerns, the ruling states, are things that “cannot be foreseen nor prevented”; sufficient back up staff is something an airline should have in place.
"The agency had to be satisfied, on a balance of probabilities and based on the evidence before it, that [WestJet] had taken reasonable measures to implement a reasonable contingency plan to mitigate the flight disruption that resulted from the crew shortage caused by the first officer's absence," said the court's ruling, released Monday.
"The decision clarifies that airlines, not passengers, should bear the cost of the inconvenience associated with safety related flight disruptions over which airlines could exercise control," a CTA spokesperson told CBC News.
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