Passenger rights advocate suing over YOW incident

A Canadian air passenger rights advocate has filed a lawsuit against the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) and Air Transat, related to the handling of incidents in July 2017, when hundreds of passengers were stranded on the tarmac of Ottawa International Airport for five hours.

The lawsuit, filed by Gábor Lukács on Dec. 29, 2017, seeks to have the $295,000 penalty overturned and sent back to the CTA for reassessment. Lukács is also asking the Federal Court of Appeal to order that the CTA does not have the authority to waive the penalties assessed for violations.

Neither the CTA nor Air Transat have filed their response to the lawsuit yet.

Lukács contends in the lawsuit that the CTA has no authority to issue ‘credit’ to Air Transat based on compensation settlements to passengers, and is asking the court to order the CTA to levy fines in addition to any compensation offered to or won by passengers. Air Transat offered $500 to each passenger affected by the events in question.