Thousands of them passengers saw their travel plans disrupted and some were left stranded after Canada‘s second-largest airline canceled hundreds of flights this weekend.
WestJet 832 flights canceled between last Thursday and Tuesday, during the Canadian public holiday weekend.
The attack ultimately led to the grounding of 130 aircraft, spread over 13 airports in Canada, and left some passengers overnight in terminals.
“It’s a disaster,” said Louisa Garcia CTV News, in which she explained how she and her husband had slept at Vancouver International Airport after a 14-hour flight from Manila.
The couple were scheduled to take another flight back to their home in Edmonton around 8 p.m. Saturday.
“When we checked in for the connection… we were told it had been cancelled and they didn’t email us,” she said, adding that while she had subsequently booked another flight for that morning, that was also cancelled.
The groundings were the result of a strike by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. The strike ended on Sunday after talks between the union and the airline resumed.
It wasn’t just passengers in Canada who were experiencing disruptions. Vancouver travel vlogger La Carmina told Vancouver is great that she was stuck in Los Cabos, Mexico.
“I got an email after midnight on Friday saying there was an outage and then there were no options to rebook, very unhelpful,” the vlogger told the outlet.
At Winnipeg International Airport, others who had a layover at the airport on Saturday said they were concerned they would have to spend the night at the airport.
WestJet announced late on Sunday that strike action had been halted and that “AMFA members will return to work as planned and begin work immediately to restore the network” after a preliminary agreement was reached.
The Airplane Mechanics Fraternal Association urged its members to return to work immediately, pending a vote on the temporary agreement.
About 680 employees, whose daily inspections and repairs are essential to the airline’s operations, walked off work Friday evening despite a directive for binding arbitration from Canada’s labor minister.
WestJet said late Sunday that there will still be flight disruptions next week as its planes return to service.
The independent has contacted WestJet for comment.