Decision No. 33-C-A-2023

[1] The applicants purchased tickets for travel with the respondent from Cancun, Mexico, to Toronto, Ontario, on January 11, 2020. The applicants claim that when they attempted to check in for their flight, the respondent informed them that their travel documents were not in order and subsequently refused to transport them. The applicants then purchased tickets with Air Canada at a cost of CAD 1,172.90 and returned to Toronto later that day.

[2] The applicants seek reimbursement for the cost of their flight from Cancun to Toronto.

[3] The respondent did not file an answer. Therefore, the applicants’ claims are uncontested.

Preliminary matters

[4] The Agency opened pleadings on the application on February 2, 2021. However, the respondent did not file an answer to the application.

[5] On June 11, 2021, for the reasons set out in Decision LET-C-A-42-2021, the Agency stayed the proceedings in this case until December 11, 2021.

[6] On January 26, 2022, for the reasons set out in Decision LET-C-A-6-2022 (Decision) the Agency was of the preliminary view that it should decline to hear the complaint as there is no practical possibility that the applicants could recover compensation if the Agency were to hear the case. The Agency provided the applicants with an opportunity to show cause why the Agency should not decline to hear their complaint. The applicants submitted a response claiming that they are entitled to compensation, but they did not further argue why they believed that the Agency should hear their complaint given the circumstances set out in the Decision.

[7] On August 30, 2022, the Reuters news agency reported that a judge declared the respondent bankrupt, that it had 185 days to reach an agreement with its creditors and that during that time, the respondent’s payments were suspended. On October 21, 2022, Reuters reported that a judge issued an order against the respondent in a class-action lawsuit, and that other affected passengers will have until October 2023 to join the second phase of the class-action lawsuit.

[8] Following these recent developments concerning the respondent, the Agency will hear the applicants’ complaint.

Analysis and Determination

[9] In this decision, the role of the Canadian Transportation Agency (Agency) is to decide whether the respondent properly applied the terms and conditions that were applicable to the tickets that the applicants purchased . If the Agency finds that the respondent failed to properly apply its Tariff, it can direct the respondent to take corrective measures that it considers appropriate or to pay compensation for any expense incurred by a person adversely affected by its failure.

[10] According to the Tariff, the respondent may refuse to transport a passenger across an international border if the travel documents of the passenger are not in order. The applicants state that the respondent did not allow them to check in, claiming that their travel documents were not valid. The applicants state that such claim is inaccurate. They add that they used the same travel documents later that day, without issue, when travelling from Cancun to Toronto with Air Canada.

[11] On the face of the evidence submitted by the applicants, the Agency cannot establish that the travel documents were not in order, and as the respondent has not filed an answer, the Agency does not know what concerns the respondent had with the applicants’ travel documents. The Agency therefore finds that the respondent failed to properly apply its Tariff when it refused to transport the applicants. Therefore, the applicants are entitled to the expenses that they incurred as a result of this failure, namely the tickets that they purchased with Air Canada to travel from Cancun to Toronto.

[12] Additionally, the applicants have provided a receipt showing that they were charged a baggage fee of MXN 503 on January 11, 2020, for their first piece of checked baggage with Air Canada. However, their original itinerary with the respondent shows that they held Optima fare class tickets, which according to the Tariff, would include one free piece of checked baggage. As a result, the Agency finds that this baggage fee also constitutes an expense that the applicants incurred as a result of the respondent’s failure to properly apply its Tariff. Based on the daily historical exchange rate published by the Bank of Canada on January 10, 2020, the closest business day to the date the applicants travelled, MXN 503 was equivalent to CAD 34.94.

Order

[13] The Agency orders the respondent to compensate the applicants in the amount of CAD 1,207.84 as soon as possible and by no later than May 5, 2023.