If the recent strike by Air Canada flight attendants left you stranded, it could be time for the airline to pay up.
How much depends on the country of departure for that leg of your journey. Spoiler alert: the news is not great if you were stuck somewhere in Canada.
Last-minute hotels, out of pocket expenses and lost wages could see Air Canada owing up to $66 million to some of the 550,000 passengers inconvenienced by the cancellations of more than 3,000 flights, according to Airfairness, a Toronto-based startup that scrapes aviation data to determine passengers’ eligibility for compensation.
Rules surrounding air passenger rights are “increasingly complicated around the world,” said Airfairness COO Zohair Khan.
“There’s tons of people,” said Zohair, “that have received refunds or were rebooked on a flight days later, that have no idea that they’re still owed compensation.”
In an emailed statement to the Star, Air Canada said it cannot provide an estimate of the amount of money owed to affected customers in compensation “as claims may still be submitted, others are being processed, and many have already been paid.”
Air Canada confirmed that if passengers are eligible under Europe’s protections for air passenger rights, known as EU261, or UK261 in the United Kingdom, they will receive compensation.
“Air Canada’s policy is to abide all regulations in the jurisdictions where we operate at all times,” the airline told the Star.
Meanwhile, in online discussion groups such as Reddit and Facebook, passengers seeking compensation for costs are voicing frustrations with wait times.
For Guelph resident Barry Fraser, the cancelled flight he and his wife had booked to return to Canada following their vacation in the U.K. was just the beginning of their struggles with the airline, he says.
The couple incurred costs for hotels, food, transportation and missed work.
After more than a week of emailing Air Canada and after submitting expenses, Fraser said he was not reimbursed what he spent. After an immediate follow-up came more days of waiting, “they’re extremely slow at responding back,” he said, adding that Air Canada replied to him with “we missed one of your receipts.”
Fraser says he had to reach out to Air Canada again to tell the airline he and his wife flew from the U.K. before it offered any compensation for their time flying in those jurisdictions, said Fraser.
“If I wasn’t on top of it, I would have just taken it and said, well this is all they’re giving me,” said Fraser, who is worried that not enough people know they could be eligible for more than the airline initially offers.
Fraser said Air Canada told him he would receive his refund within 10 business days. “It’s been over 10 business days now and they still haven’t sent it,” said Fraser, “but I trust that they will.”
Reimbursement VS. Compensation
Customers seeking to know what compensation they are eligible for under all flight jurisdictions can use the website www.airfairness.com and pay $6 for information and use that to file their own claim. Alternatively, customers can agree to pay 30 per cent of the compensation for which they are found to be eligible and the company will file the claim for you, said Khan.
As it stands, if an airline claims a cancellation is out of their control, under EU261 and UK261, reimbursement for meals and hotels, as well as cash compensation, are provided to affected customers that are flying out of Europe or the United Kingdom.
In the case of the flight attendant strike leading to cancellations, if your flight was departing from the U.K. and E.U., the walkout is considered within the control of an airline. Under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), a strike, even by an airline’s own staff, is deemed outside of the airline’s control and no compensation is provided.
Passengers in Canada have fewer rights than passengers in E.U and the U.K.
Canada’s air passenger regulations highlight the stark differences in how customers are protected in different jurisdictions, with Canada offering fewer protections compared to Europe and the U.K.
The U.K. and E.U. policies are quite similar because of the U.K.‘s membership in the European Union before Brexit, said Frederic Dimanche, professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management at TMU.
Compared to Canada’s APPR, regulations in the E.U and U.K are “typically more passenger-friendly,” said Dimanche. If there is a problem, compensation tends to be quicker, and the amounts tend to be higher, he said.
If your trip starts in the E.U. or U.K. and contains one or more flights operated by Air Canada and those flights get cancelled, the airline must pay you cash compensation in a lump sum amount of up to 600 Euros or 520 pounds sterling and provide you with meals, accommodation, ground transportation, and two free phone calls or emails throughout the duration of the delay.
Under Canada’s APPR, if flights are cancelled or delayed for reasons within an airline’s control and not related to safety, the company must pay compensation to customers based on the number of hours passengers are held up before arriving at their final destination on that ticket, up to $1,000.
There is also a “weaker enforcement mechanism,” said Dimanche, where a passenger can be heard by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), the entity in charge of Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, which has a notoriously long backlog.
Last month, the CTA said its backlog of air travel complaints stood at about 85,000 before the Air Canada strike started.
“When you buy a airline ticket, you’re essentially signing a contract with them to get you from point A to point B,” said Khan. “If they can’t deliver on that contract, you’re owed at the minimum a refund, then at best that compensation for the inconvenience.”
To provide customers with an estimate of compensation, Khan said his company created a tool to analyse itineraries that can “determine all the jurisdictions a passenger might be eligible under.”
Sometimes, there are cases where a flight might fall under both Canadian and European jurisdictions, said Khan, but “the European one might pay more.”
Gabor Lukacs, founder of the advocacy group Air Passenger Rights, says the Air Canada strike brought issues surrounding Canada’s APPR to the forefront.
To look at making possible changes to the APPR, the CTA held a 75-day public consultation that ended in March 2025. The CTA will propose changes after consulting the minister of transport, said Jadrino Huot, media officer at CTA.
Next, the minister will recommend proposed regulations to the Governor-in Council for their final approval, said Huot. “There is no set date for this.”
“Technically, the government has all the tools at its disposal to to fix this situation,” said Lukacs. “Will they act on it?”
