Transport Committee on Jan. 12th, 2023

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Of these, how many were caused by lack of staff?

[Len Corrado]

I don't have an answer to that. I can get back to you.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Wilson, you may answer the question.

[Capt Scott Wilson]

These are the numbers we have for cancellations for the period between December 16 and January 8. The total number of flights was just over 1,600.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

How many of these were caused by a lack of staff?

[Capt Scott Wilson]

We don't believe any were for staff, so they were for weather, both proactively and reactively, and the carry-on effect over the next few days.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Rheault, I'm asking you the same question.

[David Rheault]

I don't have the exact data for the holiday season. I will check and send the response to the committee.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

I want to cause some thinking. There may be situations where there is a lack of staff, but the fact remains that planning is the carriers' responsibility. I wonder about this: I understand that understaffing raises safety issues, but why sell a flight if, in the first place, the planning anticipates that there will not be enough staff for that flight?

This is really problematic and not the passenger's responsibility. It is not their fault that the flight was delayed or cancelled due to lack of staff. Nevertheless, it is the passenger who pays. There is no compensation for this, even if it is not caused by a lack of planning on the part of the passenger.

I would like to hear from you on this subject.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Unfortunately, Ms. Vignola, your time is up and you will have to wait for your next turn to get some answers.

Next we have Mr. Bachrach.

The floor is yours. You have two and a half minutes.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll direct my next question to our witnesses from WestJet.

We received an email from a WestJet passenger who flew with you from Edmonton to Orlando. Their original flight on December 25 was cancelled. They received an email from WestJet saying that there was no option for the company to re-book them within the next 48 hours. They were then able to re-book their own ticket on the 29th on a WestJet flight. WestJet then refused to compensate them the difference in price; because they booked at the last minute, the flight on the 29th cost significantly more.

My first question is around the statement from WestJet that there was no option for the company to re-book them within 48 hours. Does that include on other carriers?

[Capt Scott Wilson]

Yes, it does—

[Andrew Gibbons]

Sorry; no.

Thank you for the question. If you have any specifics about a constituency case, we've obviously fielded dozens of these from you and your colleagues, so we're happy to take a look at that. We're happy to provide that service to you and other members of Parliament.

We booked many, many guests on other carriers, as other carriers did throughout the season. We did everything we could to get people moving.

With respect to the individual case that you're talking about, we do have an obligation to respond to a claim within 30 days as part of our regulation. If the guest does not agree with our interpretation or what we've provided to them, they have the opportunity to go to the CTA, which unfortunately has a long backlog. They do not adjudicate claims within 30 days, which is something that we are obliged to do.

I would encourage that guest, and would encourage you, if you have a constituency problem, to.... We'll make our best efforts to appropriately make sure they're looked after, but a lot of guests, because of the scale of the weather and the cascading problems that Scott walked through, sadly and unfortunately were not able to be re-booked within 48 hours.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I'd like to turn to the issue of reimbursing hotel expenses. You mentioned that you've reimbursed guests for hotels. In October 2022, the CTA issued a decision in which it stated that your policy of providing $150 for reimbursement of hotel expenses was not as per the APPR. Have you changed that policy at WestJet? What is the current reimbursement policy for hotel expenses?

[Jared Mikoch-Gerke, Director, Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.]

With respect to the reimbursement of the hotels that we offered throughout the pandemic, I believe the decision that you're referring to is very specific to controllable situations or any situations for safety upon which we have to provide accommodations. We do continue to follow the regulations for that purpose and follow that decision.

With respect to this specific holiday season, we exceeded our regulatory obligations by providing hotels for up to three nights for what were uncontrollable disruptions to make sure that we were taking care of our guests in this instance.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bachrach.

Mr. Berthold, you now have the floor for five minutes.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to put a number of fairly short questions to you, because this has raised a lot of questions. We've heard many comments from people back home who have been stuck in airports and planes for hours and hours.

I would just like to give the airlines a piece of advice: don't do what the government did, with its lineups to get a number, as they did with the passport issue. At Air Canada, you have to wait in line to get a phone line. Yet everyone has access to a mobile phone. Put the number out there and make sure that people will answer the phone. I think that's the best solution in these situations.

I would like to ask each of the companies when the discussions with the Minister of Transport took place.

We know that Sunwing only spoke to him on January 5. As for WestJet, however, when exactly did you first speak directly to the minister?

[Len Corrado]

I think I'll go first, if the question is to both us and WestJet. I believe—

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

I already have your answer. I want the answer from WestJet and Air Canada.

Mr. Chair, I hope my time is not affected by the translation problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

It won't affect your time.

We'll go to WestJet first. Then we'll go to Air Canada.

[Andrew Gibbons]

As I indicated in an earlier answer, our chief executive, Alexis von Hoensbroech, was in touch with Minister Alghabra immediately when these issues started to arise and we knew, generally speaking, the scope and scale of the problems that we were going to have and that Canadians were going to face at particularly the worst time to face them. We were in touch immediately.

Then, of course, I'll repeat again that our teams at all levels of our company and all levels of the department and government...and not just Transport Canada. Transport Canada is obviously the main department, but—

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Perfect. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Next we'll go to Air Canada.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

I just wanted to know when the meetings with the minister took place.

[David Rheault]

Yes.

I would just like to clarify that the number to reach the call centre is known, Mr. Berthold. In addition, there are applications through which people can change their reservations themselves.

As I said, we were in constant communication with the minister's office, throughout the preparation and throughout the period concerned. In terms of the latest discussions with the minister, I would have to check with our people.