Key Takeaways:
- Two basketball teams from Alberta who were supposed to fly on WestJet to the east coast to partake in a national competition were abruptly denied boarding.
- The teams were rebooked an hour after the planes were cancelled on the redeye to Montreal at midnight on Sunday, followed by a two-hour bus ride into Sherbooke.
Just hours before takeoff, two Alberta basketball teams scheduled to travel to the east coast to compete in a national tournament were abruptly denied boarding on their WestJet flights.
The women’s U15 and U17 teams have reservations for flights leaving the Calgary International Airport at 7 a.m. on Sunday for Toronto before continuing to Sherbrooke, Quebec. However, they were informed that their aircraft wouldn’t take off as scheduled, leaving roughly 30 people stranded and scrambling to go further east.
According to U17 head coach Dave Waknuk, “we were going to be there only a few hours earlier,” The panic started last night between midnight and three in the morning, and it was three thirty by the time it was mostly resolved.
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Coach Waknuk described the scenario as “frustrating” and claimed that several group members were anxious about the trip due to flight cancellations or lost luggage and did not want to check bags because they were aware of the recent events occurring in Canadian airports.
The teams were rebooked on the redeye to Montreal Sunday at midnight, followed by a two-hour bus ride into Sherbooke, an hour after the flights were canceled. As a result, the team won’t arrive until 3 p.m. on Monday, just before taking the court for their first scheduled game.
It’s heading to be a very long travel day, but thankfully the tournament, via Canada Basketball as well as Basketball Quebec, has moved our game back to 8:15 p.m.
The team claims it was not informed of the reason for the cancellation, but a WestJet spokeswoman confirms that crew issues were the cause of the cancellation.
While WestJet is not exempt from the industry’s difficulties, the airline said that it had tried to combine network flights with adequate workforce numbers to meet its operational requirements. All WestJet flight crew members were recalled before the summer season, and we are balancing stable growth in line with industry standards.
Waknuk stated, “Having this plan in place is one thing. We only hope that everything proceeds without incident and that we may now arrive there with a new set of intentions. However, that is all we can do.
WestJet claims that less than 3% of daily flights are canceled, and its flight completion rate is slightly over 97%.
Source: Global News
