After days of being grounded on the tarmac at Kelowna International Airport (YLW), an Air Canada Airbus will soon be back in the air after the airline and its flight attendants reached a tentative deal in their labour dispute.
However, exactly how soon isn’t known.
“We don’t have any updated information as to exactly when operations will restart here in Kelowna,” said Sam Samaddar, YLW’s chief executive officer. “We understand from Air Canada that they are looking at resuming international flights first, trans-border then into domestic.”
As of Tuesday, 22 flights had been cancelled in and out of Kelowna since the strike began on Saturday and more cancellations are expected, according to Samaddar, as the airline works to clear the backlog and resume regular operations.
“Air Canada has advised that it could be up to two weeks before we start to see some movement on the domestic side,” Samaddar said. “But obviously we’re hoping for earlier.”
On Tuesday, the Air Canada counter at YLW was packed with passengers, anxiously trying to re-book cancelled flights as many were unable to do so online or over the phone.
Some passengers told Global News they came to the airport after calling the airline dozens of times without any success.
“We prefer really to do it online if you can,” Samaddar said. “We understand there’s some anxiety and frustration with some passengers and so talking to a real person here with Air Canada is always helpful as well.”
Kelowna resident Bojan Gilic and his two sons are currently stranded in Italy, not able to fly home as planned after a month in Croatia visiting family.
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Gilic said re-booking flights has been a frustrating ordeal since receiving an email from Air Canada advising of the flight cancellation.
“The email said call the number. The number told me to refer to the website and hung up on me,” Gilic told Global News over Zoom from his hotel room in Venice.
“So then you’re stuck with no way of contacting a person, no way to get in touch with anyone and not knowing next steps or what to do.”
Despite the uncertainty, the trio drove nearly four hours to the airport in Venice where they were supposed to fly from to deal with the situation in person.
“I was super anxious last night,” said Gilic’s wife Vanessa. “I didn’t get to sleep about 3 a.m. just because I didn’t know what the situation was.”
Gilic and his sons did manage to re-book flights, albeit days later than originally planned, but the biggest problem is those rescheduled flights don’t exactly get them all the way home.
They have yet to secure a flight for the last leg of the trip from Vancouver to Kelowna, even if it means paying a last-minute premium price with another airline.
“I’ll buy the tickets for me and the kids myself and then go through the whole painful process of reimbursement,” he said.
Gilic is hoping to be home this weekend, if all goes according to plan.
“I won’t be happy until they are actually at home,” Vanessa Gilic said. ‘They’ve been gone a while. I just miss them. I want them home.”
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