Air Canada Reviewing Incident After Attendant’s Behaviour Led to Montreal-Bound Flight Cancellation

An Air Canada jet taxis at the airport in Vancouver, B.C., on Nov. 15, 2023. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

A video showing an Air Canada flight attendant raising her voice at passengers as their Montreal-bound flight was about to take off has drawn widespread attention on social media.

In the incident, posted by aviation news provider FL360aero on X on July 27, a bilingual flight attendant is seen in the aisle of the plane yelling at passengers in both French and English. The plane was set to leave from Casablanca, Morocco, for Montreal on Friday, July 26, before it was cancelled.

“I don’t want no bullying against my crew, OK? Everyone, behave,” she can be heard saying in the footage.

The incident reportedly began after a passenger requested a blanket due to excessive air conditioning on the plane, according to several media outlets.

In the video, passengers appear confused by the flight attendant’s outburst and some question her instructions.

“Be quiet, move back to … your seatbelt, or you’re getting off,” the attendant yelled, making hand gestures to indicate that they must stay in their seats or be required to leave the plane.

Media outlets also reported that the attendant called local police to remove the passenger who requested the blanket. To support that passenger, other travellers also chose to get off the plane, leading Air Canada to cancel the flight.

The Epoch Times contacted Air Canada to confirm details of the incident but did not hear back by publication time.

A report by CTV News published July 27 says the airline sent the outlet a statement saying a flight with a different crew would depart from Casablanca to Montreal that day.

“We are taking this incident very seriously. It is under review, and we will take appropriate action,” Air Canada spokesperson Christophe Hennebell said in the statement.

“We apologize to our customers and deeply regret that their experience today fell far short of what they have come to expect when flying with Air Canada.”

The airline added it would compensate passengers for the delay and the incident.

Customer Satisfaction

According to data from Flightradar24, a flight tracker website, the initial flight, AC73, was set to leave from the Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport on July 26 at 8:50 a.m. local time and reach the Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport at 11:50 a.m. local time.

The Airbus aircraft had departed from the gate and was taxiing for takeoff when the incident occurred, leading it to return to the gate, as shown in a “Playback of flight AC73” simulation video on the flight tracker’s site.

The replacement flight, AC2073, took off on July 27 at 3:08 p.m. local time and landed in Montreal at 5:19 p.m. local time after a journey of more than seven hours, the data indicates.

Air Canada has recently been mired in customer service controversies. In November 2023, the carrier acknowledged that it violated Canadian disability regulations and apologized to a British Columbia man who uses a wheelchair, after he was forced to drag himself off a flight in Las Vegas that summer.

In May of this year, the airline was ranked below most other major North American airlines on customer satisfaction, with airfares a particular sore point, according to a poll by consumer analytics firm J.D. Power.

Air Canada pushed back against its low score, stating that it earned high marks for service in various other rankings.

“This is one of a number of customer-based rankings and it should be noted that in others, many that use much larger sample sizes, Air Canada has performed very well,” spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said in an email to The Canadian Press at the time.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.