Air Passenger Rights v. WestJet Airlines Ltd., 2026 BCCA 357

Does this apply to you?

This case applies to every passenger in British Columbia who wants to claim APPR compensation. The Court of Appeal held that the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) can hear those claims. You do not have to go to the Canadian Transportation Agency. The court also held that the airline must prove the cause of a cancellation was outside its control. On the facts, the passengers lost: a pilot strike notice counted as a labour disruption, so no compensation was owed.

What happened

Two passengers, the Boyds, booked WestJet from Kelowna to Rome through Calgary for 18 May 2023. On 15 May, the pilots' union gave WestJet a 72-hour strike notice. The strike would start at 3 am on 19 May. WestJet gave a lockout notice the same day. On the morning of 18 May, WestJet cancelled the Calgary to Rome flight. The Boyds flew to Calgary, paid $277.25 for a hotel and dinner, and arrived in Rome more than a day late. WestJet and the union reached a deal at about 1 am on 19 May, and the strike never happened.

The Boyds claimed $1,000 each in APPR compensation plus their expenses at the CRT. The tribunal awarded the expenses but refused the compensation. It held that the strike notice was a "labour disruption within the carrier", which section 10(1)(j) of the APPR lists as outside the airline's control.

The Boyds assigned their claim to Air Passenger Rights, a non-profit advocacy group. The group asked the BC Supreme Court to review the tribunal's decision. The judge dismissed the case. She held that the assignment was invalid, that the group had no standing, and that the CRT had no power to hear APPR claims at all because the Canadian Transportation Agency had exclusive jurisdiction. She raised the jurisdiction point herself, without asking the parties to argue it.

What the Court of Appeal decided

The assignment was valid. The group had helped the Boyds for free before the assignment and exists to advocate for passengers, so it was not an outsider trading in lawsuits. A fixed-sum claim under a completed contract can be assigned, and the assignment carries the right to seek judicial review.

The CRT can hear APPR compensation claims. The APPR compensation terms must be written into the airline's tariff, and the tariff is the contract between the airline and the passenger. A claim for a fixed sum under a contract is a "debt" under the CRT's statute, even if the airline disputes it. The court also read it as a claim for specific performance of a services contract.

The Canadian Transportation Agency does not have exclusive jurisdiction. There is no clause in the law that shuts out the courts, and a complete code that removes court access is rare. The Agency cannot even hear the passenger's out-of-pocket expense claim, so exclusivity would force one trip into two forums. The court said a CRT claim "can be an equally effective means of redress" and is often more efficient.

The judge was unfair to decide jurisdiction without submissions. The Court of Appeal did not send the case back. It decided the point itself, with full argument.

The airline carries the burden. Once a passenger shows a qualifying cancellation, the airline must prove the cause was outside its control, because only the airline holds the facts. WestJet accepted this.

A 72-hour strike notice is a labour disruption. The answer was "a qualified yes". The test is the situation the airline faced when it cancelled, not hindsight. The regulation says "disruption", not "strike". Under the Canada Labour Code, the 72-hour notice is the final step before a strike.

But the airline must also link the notice to the specific flight. The court said a strike notice would be hard to use for flights that finish within the first 24 hours of the notice period. The Boyds' flight to Rome was scheduled to be in the air when the notice expired, so the link was direct. WestJet's own note that it cancelled "because of the schedule reduction during the negotiations" did not change that.

The appeal was allowed in part. The judge's ruling that the CRT lacked jurisdiction was set aside. The dismissal of the judicial review was upheld, because the tribunal had been right on the merits.

Why this matters

• Passengers in BC can take an APPR compensation claim to the CRT. The Agency is one route, not the only route.
• One CRT claim can cover both the fixed APPR compensation and out-of-pocket expenses under the Montreal Convention.
• The airline must prove the cause was outside its control, and must prove your specific flight was cancelled because of it.
• A strike notice counts as a labour disruption even when the strike is called off. Flights early in the notice period are on weaker ground for the airline, but the court decided no such case.
• The ruling is about the BC tribunal's statute. It did not rule on small claims courts in other provinces.

The details