A Montreal judge has authorized a class action lawsuit against Air Canada that seeks compensation for passengers who experienced flight disruptions due to staffing constraints that the airline classified as safety issues.
The Quebec Superior Court ruled on Jan. 13 that the case brought by Slater Vecchio LLP can proceed, seeking compensation for passengers who arrived three or more hours late to a final destination on an Air Canada flight between Dec. 15, 2019 and Aug. 7, 2022. Some of the main legal issues identified by the court are whether staffing constraints and crew shortages are within the control of an airline and whether Air Canada implemented a corporate policy to classify those shortages as safety-related disruptions.
The lead plaintiff, Michèle Dussault, alleges that Air Canada unlawfully refused to compensate her after the airline misrepresented the cause of her cancelled flight in July 2022.
“Air Canada is attempting to avoid the consequences of reasons that remain its responsibility,” reads the application for the class action authorization.
In a statement to the Star, Air Canada said it would “defend ourselves vigorously if the case proceeds.”
“The particular issue of crew constraints being coded to safety was investigated by the CTA [Canadian Transportation Agency] and no systemic issues were found and no fines were levied,” the airline said.
As per Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, passengers are entitled to a refund as well as additional compensation from an airline in cases when a flight travelling to, from, or within Canada is either cancelled or delayed three or more hours, and the cause for the delay or cancellation is within the airline’s control. The rules, in part, establish minimum compensation requirements and are meant to deter the practice of overbooking flights and to minimize passenger inconvenience.
Airlines can deny a claim when the reason for a disruption is beyond their control or necessary for safety. If an airline denies a claim, passengers who disagree with an airline’s decision can take their case to the CTA, an independent regulator and tribunal that deals with matters involving air travel.
“Consumers go to this administrative tribunal, which is completely flooded and can’t possibly deal with it,” said Saro Turner, a partner at Slater Vecchio. “The people that make it there, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of all the passengers that have been affected.”
According to a message from the regulator’s CEO France Pégeot in the 2024-2025 annual report, the CTA had nearly 85,000 complaints waiting to be processed as of March 31, 2025.
Turner says there could be tens of thousands of people in the class.
An investigation by the CTA began in Feb. 2020 following the passage of the full Air Passenger Protection Regulations in 2019, involving several airlines, including Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat, Swoop, United Airlines and Sunwing. The agency looked into more than 500 complaints that alleged airlines were not accurately communicating the reasons for flight delays in violation of the regulations.
In the inquiry documents, the CTA said that while a carrier should not be penalized for making a call regarding the safe operation of an aircraft, “crew absences or shortages are part of day-to-day operations, and therefore should be anticipated and planned for.”
An Air Canada internal memo that was leaked to passenger advocate Gábor Lukács revealed it was airline policy to code crew constraints as “within carrier control — for safety,” adding that flight cancellations are “tightly tied with COVID-19 causing cabin or flight crew shortages.”
Turner is adamant that delays due to staffing constraints require passenger compensation, pointing to a recent case in which WestJet was ordered to pay passenger Owen Lareau $1,000 after his flight was delayed for 21 hours due to a crew shortage.
According to court documents, Dussault’s cancelled flight was part of a package for a cruise departing from Cape Liberty, New Jersey. She was scheduled to fly from Montreal to Newark, New Jersey on July 30, 2022 at 8:25 a.m., but received a text message the morning of the flight informing her that it was cancelled.
She then received an email informing her that the cancellation was due to “crew constraints resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The email added that crews have “a ‘duty day’ limit, which means that they work a maximum number of hours and one explanation could be that they reached their maximum due to earlier flight delays or connection issues.”
Dussault opted to travel to Newark by car rather than depart Montreal later than originally scheduled.
The class action also sought approval to seek punitive damages — an amount given to plaintiffs in civil cases in addition to regular compensation — but was denied by the court.
Lukács says that members of the class action deserve punitive damages to create a strong financial deterrent for airlines.
“The airline is treating this as a gambling problem,” he said. “They made a decision which would bring them the best outcome given the potential consequences.”
Lukács has been advocating for Canadian passengers through his organization, Air Passenger Rights, since 2008. He would like to see Canada mirror the regulations of the European Union, which are less complicated and require less time and effort for passengers to be compensated.
“We need to stop babying airlines for fear they’re going to go bankrupt,” said Lukács. “If an airline cannot operate within the confines of the law, good riddance.”
Air Canada has 30 days to file an appeal of the certification, which would begin a legal process that Turner says could then take six to 18 months to resolve. Class actions can take 10 or more years to resolve, whether through a settlement or a court decision.
“The importance of this case is really about access to justice,” said Turner. “There’s no other vehicle that would allow passengers to assert their rights.”
