A B.C. family has won more than $2,000 in damages after they were delayed 56 hours on an Air Canada flight to Egypt, according to a recent decision from the province’s Civil Resolution Tribunal.
Plaintiffs Abdallah Mohamed and Ghada Ali sought $5,000 due to the travel delays they faced with three other families during a trip from Kelowna, B.C., to Cairo, Egypt. In the decision, released Tuesday, Air Canada said the flight delay was outside its control and due to “air traffic control constraints.”
The family was scheduled to pass through Vancouver and London before reaching Cairo. But once in Vancouver, a delay meant they were forced to take another plane to the United Kingdom. When they reached London, their connecting flight had already left.
The family said the delays were due to staffing issues, and so Air Canada should pay them a minimum of $1,000 per ticket in compensation for their inconvenience and according to current regulations. Air Canada countered that the delays were out of their hands and were due to operations run by Navigation Canada.
The tribunal agreed that a so-called “knock-on effect” — where a delay in one flight delays the next — was out of Air Canada’s control. Flight documentation indicated that “at least some of the delay” was due to this effect, but that it also appeared staffing issues impacted the time it took to change airplanes, the tribunal found.
The decision said the two individuals in the case had no standing to claim damages for their three other family members. Instead, they awarded them $1,000 each, plus interest.
A more than $1,500 hotel bill the family accrued while waiting for their connecting flight was not part of the claim.
