23 passengers booted from Saturday night Halifax-to-Cancun flight

Erin Sheppard's family was excitedly waiting Saturday afternoon to take a direct flight from Halifax Stanfield International Airport to Cancun, Mexico.

A slight weather delay pushed the flight back about four hours. But when the WestJet airliner finally took off, Sheppard, her husband and their two teenage sons weren't on it.

“Just as we were expecting to be called for boarding, the announcement came that they had to take off 23 passengers from the manifest,” said Sheppard, an optometrist from Bedford.

Julia Kaiser, a spokesperson for WestJet, said in an email statement to CBC News that the number of passengers for the flight had to be cut from 173 to 150 because of an unexpected cabin crew absence.

“In rare cases like this, Transport Canada regulations require one cabin crew member for every 50 guests, and despite exploring all options, an additional crew member could not be secured in time to safely operate the flight at full capacity,” the statement said.

Sheppard said gate agents first asked for volunteers who would be compensated $900 each to catch a later flight. No one stepped up.

“Nobody was too keen to give up their seat down to a sunny tropical destination that many of us had been looking forward to for quite some time,” she said.

The next announcement was that the airline would be randomly selecting 23 passengers to pull from the flight. Sheppard's family was among the unlucky.

John Gradek, an aviation management expert and lecturer at McGill University, says at that point airline management would have decided between further delaying the flight to wait for another crew member or departing as planned with a lighter load.

“The normal practice for WestJet is you take a delay until such time as you can get another crew member into Halifax,” Gradek said.

He said WestJet flights landing in Halifax that night from Montreal and Toronto likely had crew members aboard who could have staffed the flight to Cancun. WestJet did not respond to a request for comment on that possibility.

Gradek said the decision to leave as early as possible with fewer passengers is not unprecedented but is certainly rare.

“It’s quite unusual that you would involuntarily deny boarding to passengers.”

Sheppard said she was shocked by the outcome, standing to the side as the lucky 150 boarded the plane.