Air Transat to offer compensation for flight cancelled because of drunken pilots
Posted July 21, 2016 1:20 pm.
Last Updated July 21, 2016 9:40 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MONTREAL – Air Transat’s president says the carrier will compensate all passengers booked on a flight that was disrupted when two pilots were arrested on suspicion of drunkenness.
But Jean-Francois Lemay’s statement today is short on specifics, saying only the passengers will be compensated “pursuant to the applicable European regulations.”
European Union rules stipulate a passenger is entitled to 600 euros in the event a flight longer than 3,500 kilometres is cancelled.
The airline is confirming the pilots arrested in Scotland are suspended at least until the end of an internal investigation.
Jean-Francois Perreault, 39, and Imran Zafar Syed, 37, were detained at Glasgow Airport on Monday shortly before they were to fly an Airbus A310 with about 250 passengers from Glasgow to Toronto.
The two were charged under a section of the United Kingdom’s Railway and Transport Safety Act that precludes people from conducting aviation functions “when the proportion of alcohol in (their) breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit.”
They are also each facing a charge related to threatening or abusive behaviour.
Canadian aviation regulations prohibit any aircraft crew members from working while intoxicated or within eight hours after having an alcoholic drink.
Air Transat is a subsidiary of Transat A.T. Inc. (TSX:TRZ).
