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Roughly three and a half years after an Ottawa man’s flight to Portugal was delayed by over 24 hours, the Ontario Superior Court has ordered Air Canada to pay the passenger $15,000 in compensation.
The latest ruling comes more than a year after a small claims court sided with the passenger, Rejean Landry, and his two adult children. Landry, who represented himself in small claims court, said he believed the case was relatively straightforward and was confident he’d win.
“It was just clearcut: There was too many planes, not enough employees, and it was their fault that the plane was late,” Landry said. “They pretty much never showed any argument to say otherwise. They just kept saying, ‘We don’t owe money.'”
A month after Landry won in small claims court, Air Canada appealed the decision in Ontario’s Superior Court. Air passenger rights advocates say that was likely to discourage others from pursuing similar claims, since the airline’s legal fees likely eclipsed the original award.
“Airlines want to establish precedence, and they also want to maintain the reputation that as a passenger, it’s hopeless to fight us, we are going to always win,” said Gabor Lukács, president of the advocacy group Air Passenger Rights.
He said Monday’s ruling by the Superior Court sends a clear message to Air Canada and other major airlines that judges will not tolerate them ignoring passengers’ rights. However, Lukács remains unsure how the latest ruling will affect the company’s decision to fight future claims for compensation.
Airline reviewing decision
The roughly $15,000 dollars Air Canada is ordered to pay Landry and his children includes compensation for the initial delay, replacement tickets to Portugal, and the cost of his children’s return tickets after Air Canada cancelled their trip home.
Landry said he went back and forth with the airline over email for months after returning from his trip. He initially sought compensation only for the original value of his tickets to Portugal, around $6,500.
Just over a year after Ontario’s small claims court ordered Air Canada to compensate Rejean Landry for delays that disrupted his family’s 2022 trip to Portugal, the province’s superior court has upheld the decision. As Liam Baker reports, air passenger advocates hope the case sends a message to airlines.
But after consulting Lukács’s advocacy group, Landry realized he was also owed compensation for his children’s cancelled return flights, defined as “denied boarding” by the Canadian Transportation Agency.
In his nine page decision, Superior Court Justice Ian Carter found no merit to Air Canada’s argument that Landry shouldn’t be awarded damages as he booked replacement flights before he could be rebooked by the airline. Carter said there was no evidence Air Canada had informed Landry he must wait to be rebooked.
Air Canada still has the option to appeal the Superior Court’s decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal. Lukács believes that’s unlikely.
“I suspect that they don’t want to end with a second judgment or third judgment of this case, because it really starts looking very bad for them,” he said. “Even one judgment is too many.”
In an email to the CBC, a spokesperson for Air Canada said the airline is currently reviewing the ruling.
