Canada’s airline regulator says it will probe the recent flight disruptions in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Canadian airlines abruptly halted service to the popular tourist city on Sunday, following an eruption of violence in multiple parts of Mexico after government forces killed a prominent cartel leader.
While the carriers have since resumed service, days later, some passengers are still waiting to get home — even though Canadian airlines are obligated to ensure their customers continue their journeys as soon as possible, with particular responsibilities in circumstances outside of their control.
The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) says it will investigate these disruptions, and whether airlines have lived up to their responsibilities to their customers in Mexico.
“This entails gathering evidence to make sure that airlines met all requirements stipulated in the applicable laws and regulations pertaining to this specific event,” the CTA said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
The CTA says its investigations can lead to notices of violation, as well as administrative monetary penalties.
The regulator said the investigations it undertakes of this nature are comprehensive and their duration depends on their complexity and other factors.
WestJet customer waiting to get home
As of Tuesday, more than 61,000 Canadians in Mexico had registered their presence in the country with Global Affairs Canada. That number had grown from 18,000 on Sunday, the day the violence occurred.
Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) require airlines to rebook passengers within a 48-hour window, free of charge, when delays or cancellations occur amid circumstances falling outside of the airline’s control.
And if that can’t happen, large airlines such as Flair must get affected passengers on any flight by any airline, including at another airport, if such an option exists.
Yet CBC News has heard from several Canadian travellers who have been waiting four or more days to leave Mexico since the events of last Sunday.
Calm has started to return to Mexico following the killing of the powerful cartel leader known as El Mencho, but travel advisories remain and Canadians are waiting for flights to resume. Meanwhile, Mexico’s president said authorities tracked a romantic partner of the drug kingpin to start the operation that left about 30 cartel members and 25 troops dead.
Norma Jean Adzich of Smithers, B.C., is among the Canadians waiting to return home from Mexico, along with a friend who has been travelling with her.
Adzich and her friend had wrapped up their stay last Sunday afternoon and were due to head home with WestJet from Puerto Vallarta, but their flight was cancelled amid the turmoil.
Adzich said it took more than 24 hours to contact the airline to try and rebook.
“We had to advocate for ourselves to get tickets,” Adzich told CBC News on Friday.
In the end, Adzich said WestJet ended up rebooking the two friends on a return flight for March 1 — a week after their original date of departure.
Adzich questions whether that was the quickest that WestJet could get them home, and also how much the airline cares about its currently stranded customers.
“Like, did they really put effort into it or did they just kind of randomly pick a day and hope for the best kind of thing?” she asked.
CBC News contacted WestJet on Thursday for comment on Adzich’s case. The airline requested further information about the passenger’s booking on Friday to “provide a fulsome response.”
In an email on Saturday morning, the airline said it was still looking into the matter.
The company had posted a message on X earlier in the week saying it was “continuing to monitor the ongoing situation in Mexico, with safety as our priority.”
Ontarians Douglas Connors and Alexandru Sonoc recently spent three weeks vacationing in Puerto Vallarta and were likewise due to fly home last Sunday — their flight with Flair Airlines was also cancelled that day.
The couple told CBC News that Flair initially rebooked them on a flight for March 3 — more than week after their originally scheduled departure on Feb. 22.
They had pointed to the APPR and the fact that the proposed rebooking from Flair was not meeting its requirements.
Flair’s website features a help centre that includes a page with information on passenger rights, rebooking and assistance for disrupted flights, and compensation eligibility.
That page appeared to recently drop a reference to an option for passengers to rebook themselves on flights with another airline, free of charge, when Flair could not rebook them within 48 hours.
The airline confirmed it changed the language on the page in question, calling it outdated. “We have since corrected the wording to ensure it accurately reflects our current policies.”
Sonoc and Connors eventually booked a flight home via Air Canada, on their own, after failed attempts to rebook with Flair.
“We are feeling very relieved that we are on are way home,” Connors said via WhatsApp late Thursday afternoon, as he and Sonoc were waiting to board their flight.
They have said they intend to file a formal complaint with the CTA.
Days after the killing of a prominent drug cartel leader triggered mass violence and chaos, Mexico’s military is now patrolling Puerto Vallarta. CBC’s Jorge Barrera joins Mexican military forces flying over the city in a Blackhawk helicopter.
Marina Pavlović, an associate professor in the University of Ottawa’s law faculty, said the CTA acts as both the regulator and the resolver of complaints for issues relating to the airlines.
And as such, it’s “within their power to do an independent investigation” into the issues that unfolded in Mexico.
But she notes that the CTA was already dealing with a serious backlog of complaints — even before the Mexico investigation gets underway.
