A Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) investigation has found WestJet committed hundreds of “serious” regulatory violations involving a flight that left 170 passengers “stranded,” according to a government document obtained by the Toronto Star.
The 501-page investigative report completed by a senior enforcement officer within the CTA provides a rare, detailed look at the airline’s “major screw-up,” as one industry source put it, and the confusing rationale the federal agency used to impose a reduced financial penalty — less than a quarter of the maximum amount allowed by law.
WestJet confirmed it paid the $146,300 penalty in February for 162 violations of subsection 18(1) and 104 violations of subsection 13(5) of the Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations.
A redacted version of the January report, obtained through an access-to-information request made by advocacy group Air Passenger Rights, was shared with the Star, though legal experts say it should have been available to the public immediately.
“When you have a decision that affects more than 150 individuals,” says Paul Daly, a University of Ottawa law professor, “it is very clearly in the public interest that a decision adjudicating on an airline’s rights and obligations to be publicly available. This is an instance of an airline not following the rules.”
The reduced fine, he added, warrants public scrutiny.
“We understand that the CTA found some concerns with how WestJet handled the flight diversion, and we have subsequently resolved the matter,” WestJet spokesperson Julia Kaiser said in an email. “We understand how frustrating it is when travelling does not go to plan, and we are committed to learning from this experience to ensure we meet the needs of our guests.”
On March 2, 2024, WestJet flight 1472, which started in Halifax with a stop in Calgary was bound for Palm Springs, Calif. when high winds closed that airport and the pilot was redirected to land at LAX.
None of the passengers interviewed by the CTA investigator objected to the diversion, even though some, who started the trip in Halifax, had been travelling for 20 hours.
What happened next, however, prompted one passenger to alert the CTA, which triggered a 10-month investigation.
“If I had a manifest for that flight I would do a class-action suit,” the first passenger to complain told the CTA investigator. “We understand the weather issue, we understand the diversion but don’t understand why they left us stranded.”
Passengers’ names were among the information redacted in the report.
The WestJet passengers were “left to their own devices to get to Palm Springs, over 200 kms away,” CTA investigator Marla LeBlanc wrote in the report. “Throughout this investigation, WestJet asserted they advised passengers of their recovery options. However no evidence supports this claim.”
LeBlanc also noted that despite the bad weather, WestJet was required to provide passengers with a confirmed reservation on the next available flight within 48 hours, and that if it couldn’t, “it must, at the passenger’s choice, refund any unused portion of the ticket or provide alternate travel arrangements.”
WestJet, she said, “made the decision to remove the option by forcing passengers to source their own way,” which is against the law.
Some passengers told the CTA they heard a single “garbled” PA announcement advising them they were “on their own,” while others said a lone attendant at the baggage carousel suggested they could walk or take a shuttle to another terminal some 15 minutes away to hail a taxi to Palm Springs — a cost that passengers reported upwards of $700.
“Not everyone can afford a $700 cab ride on short notice,” a passenger told the investigator. Strangers from the flight struck deals to share rides. One family “could not take a taxi and had no choice but to rent a vehicle,” the investigator stated. Their claim for reimbursement was denied.
“I was stunned,” a passenger reported to the CTA. “There were lots of elderly people with walkers and families with young children … they were shell-shocked. Some asked if they could get hotel vouchers but he said no. It was about 11 p.m. and LAX is filled with unhoused people who need a place to sleep. Very scary for elderly people and families with young children.”
Despite the bad weather forcing the diverted landing, WestJet still had a regulatory obligation to get the passengers to their final destination, LeBlanc concluded.
“There is no dispute over the fact that passengers were required to source their own way,” LeBlanc wrote in her report. “WestJet admits the original plan to provide taxi vouchers to passengers failed due to technical difficulties and passengers state the same.”
While many were reimbursed for most of their taxi fares, some were still waiting as of the Jan. 9, 2025 date of the report. Others who hailed an Uber or Lyft were denied compensation.
Gabor Lukacs, president and founder of Air Passenger Rights, is concerned the CTA missed an important opportunity to exert its power to impose new, higher fines.
“Right now, economically we’re seeing anarchy in Canada,” said Lukacs. “Government makes laws and businesses take them as recommendations. It should be more profitable to comply with the law than not. The CTA needs to send a message that the laws are no joke.”
The law says that when an airline cancels or delays a flight “for reasons outside its control” (like bad weather), it doesn’t have to provide passengers with food, drink or overnight accommodations, but it is required to make alternate travel arrangements or provide a refund.
It also has to convey its plan using the passengers’ preferred method of communication (email or text, for example) and not just with a hard-to-hear message over a speaker system. The communication must also be compatible with adaptive technologies for people with disabilities.
WestJet told CTA’s investigator it “respectfully disagrees” that it had to inform passengers of the passengers of the plan in this way.
The investigator pointed out that even WestJet’s own website promises to keep passengers informed by “sending notifications.”
WestJet did share with the CTA an internal communication that suggests the airline was willing to provide passengers with a place to stay. But it seems that message never got through to passengers.
“We do have rooms in LAX if the guests do want to stay the night in LAX tonight, and there’s a United flight LAX-PSP tomorrow,” the internal memo stated. “We are under the impression that most guests will take the taxi vouchers for them, but that is a fall back plan and we made sure we had some rooms in LA in case.”
WestJet told the investigator its agent at LAX was unable to print the taxi vouchers “due to technical difficulties.”
While LeBlanc classified WestJet’s regulatory breaches as “serious,” the penalty was reduced on account of this being the airline’s “first violation.”
The CTA could have fined WestJet $2,500 for each passenger the airline failed to properly communicate with regarding the flight cancellation.
LeBlanc found evidence that 104 passengers were affected directly.
But the CTA reduced the fine to $500 per person.
