Unfortunately, there’s bad news for both of Canada’s biggest airlines. Major disruptions are a guarantee at WestJet, as almost 10% of their fleet was taken out of service by a huge hailstorm in their biggest hub this week. Disruptions are not guaranteed at Air Canada, but they very well could happen, as pilots are threatening to strike in September (August 22nd update: they officially have voted for a strike mandate).
We’ll fast-track our ultimate guide about your rights and our pro tips for flight disruptions, given the situation. But I wanted to at least share what’s happening right away.
Here are the details of both situations.
WestJet’s flight cancelations (hail damage)
Let’s be clear about that: airlines often deserve a lot of blame. But some travelers also irrationally blame airlines in many instances when they really aren’t to blame. Just because they are sometimes terrible doesn’t mean they always are.
Yes, this will come as a surprise to some, but airlines can’t do anything about the weather.
A major hailstorm hit Calgary this week, and many WestJet planes need to be inspected and repaired to make sure flying remains by far the safest mode of transport.
I’ve seen many questionable questions about the cancelations, with the medal winners being:
- Why didn’t they do something to avoid it?
- Why is it only affecting WestJet?
- Why are they canceling so many flights?
I’m tempted to not even address the first one, but we do care about our mission of helping everyone learn to become better travelers, so here we go. Yeah, hailstorms are pretty sudden. And even with advance warning, there just aren’t enough hangars to hide every plane in an airline’s fleet.
The second one might not be as obvious if you don’t know that much about aviation, but Calgary is WestJet’s biggest hub. They have a lot more planes on the ground there at any given time than any other airline. If the hailstorm was in Montréal, Air Canada would be more affected. Pure bad luck on WestJet’s part.
The third one is that aviation is the safest mode of transport because no chances are ever taken, even if that means disrupting thousands of travelers. WestJet has 16 damaged planes, and each plane obviously operates many flights per day, so that’s a lot of flights that just can’t be operated.
Surely, you wouldn’t rather they operate your flight with a potentially damaged plane, right?
If your WestJet flight has been canceled or delayed (about 10% of their nearly 800 flights per day are at this stage), you get free hotels and meals if you paid your flight with a good credit card, as always.
But in terms of your rights, the delay is most likely due to this hailstorm (though you should still ask for proof) and that is obviously outside the airline’s control. That means they have a full 48 hours to rebook you on another flight. If they can’t do it on other WestJet flights in that timeframe, they have to pay for a flight on another airline.
You can obviously always choose to get a full refund if you prefer; that’s the baseline, no matter the reason for the delay. You won’t get a cash compensation amount for the delay, since the reason is outside the airline’s control — unless the flight is departing from the EU or UK.
Air Canada’s potential flight cancelations (pilot strike)
It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that WestJet’s strike situation led to 1,000+ flights being canceled. Now it’s Air Canada’s turn to have that hanging over every traveler’s head.
On September 17th, Air Canada pilots could strike. That means even in the days leading up to that (yes, before), many flights could be canceled pre-emptively to manage the irregular operations and not have crew and planes stuck in sub-optimal locations.
The strike is definitely not a sure thing, as the most likely outcome is that a negotiated agreement is reached before that date. But it’s certainly not unlikely for this strike to happen either.
While you await our guide specifically for Air Canada, the strike guide we just did for WestJet will help you know what will happen.
In the meantime, if you have flights planned around those dates and absolutely need to be somewhere on a specific date, the savvy option is to book a fully refundable ticket on a different airline. If you end up needing it, you probably won’t mind that that fare class is more expensive (and you’ll get a refund on your canceled flight at least). If you don’t end up needing it, you cancel it and get a full refund.
I’m looking to book flights around those dates to attend a credit card convention in Texas. To be safe, I’ll probably just book on a U.S. airline. It’s probably the best option as of now if you need to book around that date.
A lot more details about this potential strike coming soon.
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Summary
WestJet is canceling roughly 10% of its nearly 800 flights per day and will for at least a while, due to the hailstorm in Calgary damaging their planes. Air Canada might have to cancel a whole lot more flights if their pilots strike as they threatened, and we’ll keep you updated about that all along.
What would you like to know about Westjet hail flight cancelations? Tell us in the comments below.
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