Porter Airlines cancelled approximately 10 roundtrip flights on July 10, many of which were "short-notice cancellations," and fliers were not happy with their response.
Porter customers took to Twitter to lay out the airline, with some saying flight cancellations occurred while they were already at the airport and even on boarded planes.
Porter told Narcity in a statement that flights were cancelled due to "capacity limits imposed by third-party air traffic control (ATC) limitation" and that three flights were cancelled after passengers had already boarded due to ATC clearance and, in one case, crew hitting their maximum hours of work.
"Can you explain what's going on with this board? Dozens of passengers just boarded and then were told to leave by the pilot. The gate crew at EWR doesn't seem to have a clue what's going on," wrote one passenger in a tweet.
Another Twitter user tweeted that passengers were "stranded" at the airport thanks to cancellations and called the lack of accommodations "criminal."
"Porter airlines flight PD 591 got cancelled with no advance notice. Passengers stranded at airport and no alternate options offered for passengers outside of Toronto. This is criminal to let people figure things out on own. Can, hotel, food," read the tweet.
Nakul Kapoor told Narcity he found out his flight PD143 was cancelled two hours beforehand in a text as his Uber pulled up to Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport.
Text message to Nakul Kapoor. Nakul Kapoor.
Since he was already at the airport and needed to get a flight to make a workshop, he couldn't miss the following day Kapoor went inside the airport to speak with an agent.
"After waiting 30 minutes in line, I was told it was cancelled due to Canadian Air Traffic Control," said Kapoor. "Ultimately they said it was lack of resources to check Canadian airspace so they limited flights out of Toronto."
Kapoor said they made it clear that since the cancellation was out of their control, no hotel or compensation would not be offered.
"They confused other people by indicating there was a shuttle to the Royal York but they would only get a preferred rate of $229/night. That was too expensive for me, so I just took an Uber all the way back to Markham."
Another passenger took to Twitter to complain about the Fairmont Royal York discount and the confusion around Porter's communication.
"We were told to go to the @FairmontRYH hotel, show the rebooked boarding pass and room is covered. Instead upon arrival were told there's a $229/nite room charge."
When it comes to accommodation and food for impacted travellers, Porter said they typically only offer these perks when "delays and cancellations occur within Porter's control."
"In these cases, we offer discounted hotel rates when the properties have available space. Rates are dependent on the location and room availability but confirmed in advance by our team. This should be clearly communicated to eligible passengers prior to arriving at a hotel, which we attempt to do in every case," a spokesperson for Porter said in a statement.
"We are sorry that our passengers were affected by yesterday's schedule disruptions. Our customer relations team is available to support any additional questions that people may have," they added.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.