Passengers in B.C. waited 11 hours before Air Canada flight cancelled

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Some passengers hoping to travel from Prince Rupert, B.C., to Vancouver were involved in an 11-hour ordeal after their Air Canada Jazz flight was delayed and then cancelled, according to local media outlet The Northern View.

The flight, which takes less than two hours, was scheduled to leave the Prince Rupert Airport, located on nearby Digby Island, at 3:40 p.m. on Feb. 3.

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“Flights to several communities have been affected by heavy snow in Vancouver causing backlog and changes,” the airport said in a Facebook post the next day.

Three hours after its intended takeoff time on Feb. 3, the plane had still not arrived, The Northern View reported. Airport staff alerted passengers at 6 p.m. that the plane would take at least four more hours to arrive.

One passenger, Tina Ryan-Krumm, a Guardian Watchman for Metlakatla, was supposed to be going on a work trip. She told the publication that around 12:30 a.m., she could hear a plane overhead. But the hopes of passengers were quickly extinguished. The aircraft circled twice, she said. But it never landed.

Passengers were then told by Air Canada staff that the flight was officially cancelled.

Ryan-Krumm and a co-worker she was travelling with had nowhere to stay in Prince Rupert after the cancellation.

“My husband had to come over and pick myself, coworker and his wife up at the dock at the airport,” she told The Northern View.

When she finally got home, she had exhausted 11 hours of her time on a flight that never took off.

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Although Ryan-Krumm was told she had a spot on a flight the next day, that flight was also delayed and then cancelled. She was then told by Air Canada staff that if she wanted to switch the flight to depart from Terrace, she would be charged $2,000. Terrace, a city in west central B.C., is just over a one and half hour drive from Prince Rupert.

Ryan-Krumm decided against switching her flight again, and cancelled her work trip altogether.

Another passenger, Howard Gray, told The Northern View that Terrace was “a more dependable option.” He was also set to leave on the Air Canada flight from Prince Rupert on Feb. 3 for a medical exam in Vancouver. He ended up getting home around 1 a.m.

He rescheduled his medical appointment for March. He said he was disappointed with how Air Canada staff handled the cancellation. He said that if staff were aware of the possibility of a cancellation, they should have done so sooner, rather than forcing passengers to wait at the secluded airport.

According to The Northern View, the cancellation meant that other passengers missed connecting flights to international destinations such as Germany, the Philippines and Mexico, including one couple who was meant to be celebrating their wedding in Cancun.

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The cancellation on Feb. 3 came after a string of cancellations beginning a couple of days prior, on Feb. 1.

In response to some negative comments online about the lack of flights available, the airport’s Facebook account said: “We wish we had the power to produce flights, but the airlines need to provide them, which they currently cannot do. We are one of many community airports hit with air service reductions and are constantly advocating for more flights. The more voices the better!”

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