Flair customers who were scheduled to fly home from Mexico on Thursday are speaking out after their flight was delayed for three days.
Stephanie Connors of Ottawa told Daily Hive that the ordeal was characterized by lack of sleep, food rationing and lack of contact from Flair. She was visiting Isla Holbox on a 10-day solo backpacking trip when she learned on March 14 that her flight would be delayed while returning to the Cancun airport.
The plane did not take off that night. Delays continued to escalate for days as she frantically shuttled to and from airport hotels, boarding and disembarking planes that were said to have malfunctioned navigation systems, and were provided with food and water for three days. Survived in the airport terminal. A bottle costs close to $10.
“The way they treat people is completely criminal,” Connors told Daily Hive. “I’ll never fly with them again.”
Air passenger rights activist Gabor Lukács weighed in on the situation, saying the federal government was partly to blame for not enforcing its own aviation regulations regarding delays and cancellations.
“This behavior and this blatant disregard for the law is troubling,” he told Daily Hive, adding that the government “is condoning this systematic and flagrant disregard for the rights of passengers.”
Daily Hive has reached out to Flair for comment, but has not yet received a response.
Connors told Daily Hive that the airline accommodated passengers at an airport hotel on the first night, transported them there and provided them with dinner. They returned to the airport for their rescheduled flight on Friday and received their boarding passes, but were reminded to check their terminal screens for further changes.
After further notice of delays, they finally boarded a bus and headed to the tarmac. Connors estimated he waited on the bus for an hour and a half before the pilot boarded, telling him over the intercom that the plane’s navigation system was not working.
Connors and other passengers were returned to the terminal for further waiting.
She had researched alternative flights online, but they all cost nearly $1,000. Flair’s email notifying her that her original flight had been canceled also offered a refund option, but she didn’t know how much it would cost.
After waiting several more hours at the airport, the group received word that the plane had been repaired. It was already past 7:45 p.m., and the passengers were boarding the plane. It didn’t take off.
Connors said he was stuck on the tarmac for several hours before being asked to get off.
This time, passengers will collect their luggage and return to the airport hotel for their second night.
Connors returned to the hotel just after midnight and followed instructions to be in the lobby for shuttle pickup at 8 a.m. However, when she went downstairs she was told that the shuttle had already left.
Despite the confusion, Connors eventually returned to the airport. She received a boarding pass at 9:50 a.m. on Saturday that said the boarding time for her flight was 9:55 a.m., but time was so tight that the entire group had to wait through security. I had a hard time passing the inspection.
“They keep us in a cage like this, and this cage is getting bigger because the guards are deciding whether to let us through. But ultimately, the plane We’re seeing people coming from all over.”
Around 1:30 p.m., the Connors returned to the bus to head to the plane.
“Each of us swipes our boarding passes and they tell us we’re on a different plane,” she says. “So we’re like, thank God, the problem should be solved.”
However, when Ms. Connors arrived at the same seat she had been assigned the day before, she noticed the same nail polish stain on the tray table. Someone told her that the wrapping paper she had left there the day before while waiting on her tarmac was still there.
Connors is sitting on the tarmac again. After about an hour, the pilot said there was still a problem with the navigation system, she said.
“People are starting to panic pretty hard,” Connors said. “I counted the stamps in my passport and there were 38. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
Eventually, a staff member came back over the intercom and said that only part of the navigation system was not working. They intended to obtain special permission to fly without the usual fully functional systems.
They finally took off on March 16 around 5 p.m., Connors said.
“They were just overwhelmed, overworked, sleep deprived, food and water rationed…The kids were in really bad conditions,” she said.
She is seeking compensation from Flair for delays, airport expenses and missed shifts at work.
“This cannot be tolerated,” she said.
Lukács said Flair has a duty to passengers who rebook on a competitor’s flight in that scenario, but Flair has a track record of avoiding that responsibility. He encouraged passengers to keep track of their meal and lodging expenses in order to seek compensation through small claims court.
He is also concerned about Flair’s financial viability, saying passengers may not receive the money they are owed if the airline goes bankrupt. Another Canadian low-cost carrier, Lynx, also recently shut down, leaving ticket holders without compensation for the flights they booked.
