15-hour flight delay 'absolute nightmare,' says Air North passenger

Some Air North passengers were relieved to arrive in Whitehorse on Tuesday morning — though they were likely feeling a little worse for wear, and at least one of them is accusing the company of putting "profits over people."

A 15-hour delay to a flight from Edmonton because of a flat tire meant passengers who thought they'd be touching down in the Yukon Monday afternoon actually arrived early the next day.

The ordeal frustrated one passenger so much that he's saying Yukon's airline has "lost a former loyal customer." 

"I used to love Air North but ... this experience has been something else," Duane Gastant' Aucoin of Teslin, Yukon.

Aucoin describes boarding the plane early Monday afternoon for what's typically a two-and-half hour flight to between the two cities. The plane was just about to start taxiing when an announcement came that there was a flat tire. Passengers would have to go wait in the airport while it was fixed.

According to Aucoin, they were initially told it would be about an hour's delay.

One hour turned into several and Aucoin said that's when passengers were given $16.50 meal vouchers. 

"So then that was a gong show," he said, describing a long wait in line while airline staff manually filled out individual meal vouchers. 

"So then, OK, we wait some more. 'One more hour.' More announcements, 'One more hour.' Then finally, no more announcements. It's like everything, it's like it just stopped," he recalled.

He says they were eventually told what was happening — the flight crew's shifts were done and so a new crew had to be flown down from Whitehorse. It would be a while yet before the flight left. They all got another meal voucher.

"They kept on insisting, no, we'll get you home, we'll get you home. And that's when I'm like, why don't you just cancel the flight?" Aucoin said.

"This was a cost saving. It was cheaper for Air North to give us $33 in meal vouchers and make us sleep around like homeless people in the airport, than to put us up in hotels. So they put the profit over people."

Finally, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the flight left Edmonton, touching down in Whitehorse at about 5:15 a.m.

"It was a nightmare. An absolute nightmare," said Aucoin.