Court dismisses WestJet legal challenge of order to compensate passenger for flight delay

An appeals court has dismissed a legal challenge filed by WestJet over an order to compensate a passenger for a flight cancellation, potentially setting a precedent for other such cases.

Canada's transport regulator — The Canadian Transport Agency (CTA) — had ordered WestJet to pay a passenger $1,000 for a 2021 flight cancellation. The Federal Court of Appeal ruled Monday that there was "no reviewable error" in the CTA's decision.

WestJet had maintained that the cancellation was for safety purposes and therefore it shouldn't be required to compensate the passenger.

But the three-judge panel found that WestJet didn't offer adequate evidence to the CTA to support its claim.

"The agency had to be satisfied, on a balance of probabilities and based on the evidence before it, that [WestJet] had taken reasonable measures to implement a reasonable contingency plan to mitigate the flight disruption that resulted from the crew shortage caused by the first officer's absence," the court's ruling, released Monday, said.

"The appellant led insufficient evidence to satisfy the agency of this. I am of the view that the agency made no reviewable error," the ruling said.

Under CTA regulations, airlines are required — in certain circumstances — to compensate passengers when a flight is delayed or cancelled.

The case involved passenger Owen Lareau, whose flight in July 2021 from Regina back home to Ottawa was cancelled, causing a 21-hour delay.

According to the CTA, WestJet argued that a pilot had called in sick about an hour before take-off and a replacement couldn't be found in time, so the flight cancellation was a safety issue which doesn't warrant compensation.

But the CTA — a quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator tasked with settling disputes between airlines and customers — ruled that WestJet "did not sufficiently establish" that the flight cancellation was unavoidable, so it ordered the airline to compensate Lareau $1,000.

Monday's ruling could have implications for other cases where airlines have challenged CTA decisions. Air Canada, who was an intervener in Lareau's case, has also filed legal challenges to the agency's rulings.

CBC News has asked WestJet for comment on the court's ruling.