ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½’s Civil Resolution Tribunal has ordered Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ to pay a ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ couple $1,400 for flight delays the airline said were a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Inayat Singh and Suk Young Yoon told tribunal vice-chair Shelley Lopez that Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ owed them compensation under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations for a delay in their arrival at their final destination.
Singh and Yoon were booked on flight AC190, scheduled to depart Victoria on Aug. 22, 2021 at 12:30 a.m. It was set to arrive in Toronto at 7:56 a.m.
The flight was cancelled a few hours before the flight. The company rebooked the pair on a flight arriving by 3:30 p.m.
Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ said it was due to “crew constraints resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operations," outside of its control. It said flight issues had to be looked in the context of the whole pandemic and not in isolation.
Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ said Singh and Yoon had to prove otherwise and had not done so. As such, the airline said it owed the pair nothing, stated the .
The tribunal ruled it was "insufficient" for Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ to simply assert that it was outside its control or due to safety concerns, because of the pandemic.
“Second, I also am not prepared to accept the vague and unsupported assertion that I must consider the aviation ecosystem as a whole and find that the applicants’ particular flight delay was outside Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½’s control or done for safety reasons,” said Lopez.
The tribunal said Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ had not provided sufficient evidence on that issue. Only Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ had the ability to prove the delay was outside its control or due to pandemic-related safety constraints, she added.
“In the absence of evidence to the contrary here, I agree,” Lopez said. “I find the delay was within Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½’s control and was not for safety purposes.”
