Regina Worldwide Airport had a subdued environment on Saturday as travellers grappled with continued uncertainty over the Air Canada flight attendant strike.
5 out of six scheduled Air Canada flights out of the airport had been cancelled on Saturday. Two extra Air Canada flights set to depart on Sunday have additionally been cancelled, however the destiny of flights later within the week remained up within the air.
Randy Durban, who lives in Boston however is initially from Regina, was on the airport to attempt to type out a Boston flight he had booked for Tuesday morning.
“I needed to see if issues do not go nicely on Tuesday with Air Canada, can I get on one other flight?” he mentioned.
“As a result of I do know WestJet has one to Minneapolis after which on to Boston. I used to be simply attempting to see if I might ebook one thing tentatively.”
Durban mentioned he spent about $700 on his Air Canada ticket to Boston. He nonetheless plans to purchase a WestJet ticket on the final minute if his Air Canada flight is cancelled.
Greater than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants went on strike shortly earlier than 1 a.m. ET Saturday morning, instantly grounding lots of of flights throughout the nation.
About 12 hours later, Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu mentioned she had invoked Part 107 of the Canada Labour Code to order binding arbitration between the airline and its union, ordering operations to renew.
However as of Saturday afternoon, it was not instantly clear when Air Canada’s flight attendants will return to work and flights absolutely resume.
Mikhail Mainra was additionally on the airport on Saturday to attempt to type out a future Air Canada flight, which is booked for Monday.
“I truly did ebook one other flight simply as a backup, which was fairly exhausting to do,” he mentioned. “However I did not wish to get to the day earlier than the place I could not discover any flights to go dwelling. So yeah, [I’m] simply type of scrambling to get a final minute ticket.”
In an interview Friday, Regina Worldwide Airport President and CEO James Bogusz mentioned travellers ought to make plans to cope with the “fluid state of affairs.”
“It’s vital that in case you’re travelling with Air Canada, you will have your up to date contact data, together with your telephone quantity and your electronic mail tackle … so in case your flight, whether or not it’s from Regina or elsewhere, or your connecting flight is impacted by these disruptions, you may be made conscious,” he mentioned.
Bogusz mentioned Air Canada is by far the biggest provider between Regina and Toronto, and estimated that the flights that had been cancelled on Friday had impacted lots of of passengers.
On its web site, Air Canada mentioned it can attempt to rebook any flight that’s cancelled because of the strike, together with with different airways. However it cautioned that area was already restricted because of the peak summer season journey season.
Full refunds for flights booked earlier than Aug. 15 are additionally being provided for Air Canada flights scheduled to depart on Aug. 16 and 17. Prospects who booked a non-refundable ticket might cancel their journey and obtain the quantity paid as a journey credit score.
Air Canada additionally mentioned any passenger booked to journey between Aug. 15 and 19 can change their flights free of charge, however provided that the tickets had been bought earlier than Aug. 15. The free reschedulings are additionally solely eligible for dates between Aug. 21 and Sept. 12.
