Air Canada flight cancellations: How to get refunds, other compensation

Air Canada's move to cancel nearly 10,000 flights this summer has many passengers frustrated and confused. Here's what you're owed if you were stranded at the gate.

Air Canada’s sudden cut to its summer flight schedule fuelled another chaotic long weekend at Canadian airports and left many customers stranded and frustrated.

Canadian airlines and airports alike claimed top spots globally for flight delays over the Canada Day long weekend.

Air Canada, which announced late last week it was cutting 15 per cent of its summer schedule, or roughly 9,500 flights, ranked No. 1 in delays on Saturday and Sunday as two-thirds of its flights took off late, according to tracking service FlightAware. WestJet and its low-budget carrier Swoop were also in the top five for delays worldwide.

Gabor Lukacs, who runs a Facebook group to help passengers resolve disputes with airlines and regulators in Canada’s travel industry, says he and his team have been inundated with complaints in recent days.

“We have been overwhelmed with requests for help, and unfortunately, we are not able to get all of them,” he told Global News on Monday. “The onslaught of problems that the airlines are creating for the public is just tremendous.”

Though staffing shortages at Canadian airports have contributed to long lineups and delays for months, Lukacs puts the blame for recent turbulence squarely on the airlines themselves.

He said what’s playing out across Air Canada’s network is similar to when an airline might overbook a single flight, selling 110 tickets on a 100-seat plane, for instance.

“We are seeing something like that but on a much larger scale,” he said.