If Air Canada cancels your flight because of a strike of its own employees, your rights depend on your itinerary. However, Air Canada must always offer you a choice between the following two options.
Option 1: Continuing to Travel
- Rebooking, free of charge, on the next available flight operated by any carrier, including on competitors with whom Air Canada has no interline agreement, on any reasonable air route from the airport where you are located, or another airport that is within a reasonable distance of that airport, to the destination that is indicated on your original ticket.
- In addition, if the new departure is from an airport other than the one at which you are located, transportation to that other airport, free of charge.
Option 2: Refund and Return to Point of Origin
- Refund in the original form of payment and within 30 days of all unused flight segments and segments that no longer serve any purpose.
- In addition, transportation to your point of origin, free of charge, if you are not at the point of origin and the travel no longer serves any purpose because of the cancellation.
Additional compensation for out-of-pocket expenses (meals, hotels, lost wages) and inconvenience may be owed to you, depending on your travel’s origin and destination.
We strongly recommend that you record your own interactions with Air Canada. Evidence of Air Canada’s actions and omissions, including refusal to offer compensation or rebooking, may turn out to be crucial evidence for enforcing your rights to compensation.
Ultimately, you may want to take Air Canada to small claims court to enforce your rights.
If Air Canada cancelled your flight “preemptively” before the strike had begun, then please see Air Canada Preemptive Flight Cancellations: What Are My Rights?
The Air Passenger Protection Regulations
If your itinerary is entirely within Canada, then unfortunately your only protection is Canada’s inferior Air Passenger Protection Regulations, also known as the APPR. The APPR applies to all flights to and from Canada, but you may have additional rights under other legislation (see below).
A strike of Air Canada’s own employees is, unfortunately, deemed to be “outside the carrier’s control” within the meaning of the APPR (s. 10(1)(j)). The airline must offer you a choice between Option 1 and Option 2 above.
Option 1: Continuing to Travel
- Under subsection 18(1) and paragraph 18(1.1)(a) of the APPR, the airline must rebook you, free of charge, on the next available flight operated by that airline or its partner (i.e., United for Air Canada) departing within 48 hours of your original departure time, or failing that, on the next available flight operated by any competitor with whom Air Canada has no interline agreement.
- The rebooking must be done irrespective of class of service (ss. 18(2)-(3)). For instance, if the next flight available only has business class seats and you were originally booked in economy, the airline must book you into business class for free.
- It may be beneficial to consult a flight booking website to determine what the next available flights in fact are, as some airlines may try to put you on flights departing many hours or days later, in contravention of their rebooking obligation under the APPR.
- No food, beverages, or accommodation is owed under the APPR in this scenario (although it may be owed under other legislation; see below).
- No cash compensation for inconvenience is owed under the APPR in this scenario (although it may be owed under other legislation; see below).
Option 2: Refund and Return to Point of Origin
- Under the case law on refunds and paragraph 18(1.1)(a) of the APPR, you are entitled to choose to not travel anymore and opt for a full refund of the ticket. Should you make this decision enroute to your destination, the airline is required to also fly you back to your point of origin free of charge.
- Under section 18.2 of the APPR, the airline must provide that refund in the original form of payment within 30 days of you requesting it.
- No cash compensation for inconvenience is owed under the APPR in this scenario (although it may be owed under other legislation; see below).
Flights That Are Part of an International Itinerary
If your itinerary includes at least one international segment, then the airline is liable for damages incurred by you as a result of delay. This includes flights to or from the US. Put another way, if any one of your flights crosses an international border, this section applies to you. This means that, in addition to offering you a choice between Option 1 and Option 2, Air Canada must also compensate you, after the fact, for:
- reasonable expenses incurred for meals, ground transportation, accommodation, telecommunications, etc.;
- lost wages;
- prepaid hotel nights or events missed at the destination; and
- any other loss you may have incurred as a result of the delay.
The source of your rights is Schedule VI to the Canadian Carriage by Air Act, also known as the Montreal Convention, specifically its Article 19. It says that the airline can avoid liability for delay only if the airline proves that the airline, the airline’s agents, and the airline’s servants have taken all reasonable measures to prevent the delay or that there were no such measures available. In addition, under Article 26, the airline cannot exclude this liability by using creative contractual language.
While Air Canada may attempt to deny compensation on the basis of this exception, it is unlikely to succeed in court, given that:
- The airline’s own employees are “agents and servants” of Air Canada;
- the strike was announced weeks in advance, and thus was not unforeseeable; and
- there is a judicial determination that a strike is not an “extraordinary circumstance.”
Nevertheless, Air Canada may dig in its heels and refuse to pay unless and until passengers take them to court.
In most cases, airlines’ liability for passenger delay under the Montreal Convention is limited to approximately CAD$10,000 per passenger. Airlines cannot impose any formula or guidelines on reimbursement. A policy purporting to limit hotel reimbursements to $150 per night is null and void pursuant to Article 26 of the Montreal Convention.
Flights Departing from the EU/EEA/UK and Connecting Flights
If your trip starts in the European Union or the European Economic Area or the UK, contains one or more flights operated by Air Canada, and those flights get cancelled, this section applies to you.
For instance, if you were flying from Paris to Calgary via Atlanta, and the first flight was operated by Air France from Paris to Atlanta, while the Atlanta-Calgary flight operated by Air Canada is cancelled because of the strike of its own employees..
In these instances, in addition to offering you a choice between Options 1 and Option 2 above, the airline must:
- pay you cash compensation in the amount of:
- 300 EUR if you are delayed by at least 3 hours but less than 4 hours; and
- 600 EUR if you are delayed 4 hours or more;
- provide you with care (meals, accommodation, ground transportation, and 2 free phone calls or emails).
The source of your rights is Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which has also been codified as UK domestic law. The European Court of Justice recently confirmed that a strike is not an “extraordinary circumstance” within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004, and a strike does not relieve the airline from the obligation to pay compensation; in particular, a lockout or a preemptive flight cancellation is not an “extraordinary circumstance.” (You may also be entitled to additional compensation under the Montreal Convention, if applicable.)
Canadians Deserve EU-Style Passenger Protection
The Air Canada strike underscores the stark contrast between air passengers’ rights under the Liberal government’s inferior APPR and the European Union’s gold standard of passenger protection.
Please consider asking for an in-person meeting with your federal MP and/or candidates for the 2025 elections, and impress upon them the importance of aligning Canada’s passenger protection regime with the European Union’s simple and straightforward regime.
