Murray Wood: The 'dumbest trade war in history' is back on
The Wall Street Journal writes that the trade war between Canada and the U.S. just got dumber. Murray Wood says the U.S....
A Saskatoon family that cancelled a trip to Mexico after WestJet refused to carry their daughter’s power wheelchair hopes a new ruling will put the airline back in its travel plans.
Richard Nataraj and his family booked the vacation last fall, expecting to fly from Saskatoon in February. After booking the flights, they were told their daughter Georgia’s wheelchair exceeded WestJet’s 300-pound limit for mobility aids.
Read more:
- Advocate calls WestJet decision on Saskatoon wheelchair a ‘travesty’
- WestJet reversing move to install tight seating layout
- Sask. family says WestJet cancellation derailed Mexico trip
The family was given two options: cancel the flights or drive with their four children through Saskatchewan and Alberta in the winter to catch a larger plane in Calgary.
“We originally decided to arrange to drive to Calgary and catch the flight,” Nataraj said. “But after considering it for a bit longer, taking the four kids on winter roads in Saskatchewan and Alberta, we decided to cancel our flight.”
The decision was especially surprising because Georgia had previously travelled on WestJet with the same wheelchair.
“We were obviously disappointed at that and a bit shocked because we’d flown on that exact same airplane with her exact same chair, which is stored in cargo, several times before,” Nataraj said.
That included a Make-A-Wish trip to Paris within the previous year.
The family also had a trip to Ireland booked through WestJet but changed those flights to Air Canada after learning about the mobility-aid restriction.
“All of that was disappointing, not only in the moment, but just to think that airlines are discriminating against individuals in wheelchairs and limiting my daughter’s ability to travel around her own country,” Nataraj said.
Now, Canada’s transportation regulator has ordered WestJet to change the policy.
The Canadian Transportation Agency found the 300-pound limit creates an “undue barrier” for some travellers living with disabilities. It ordered WestJet to remove the cap from the vast majority of its planes before July 2027.
The agency said WestJet should instead use spreader plates to distribute the weight of mobility aids more evenly across the cargo-hold floor. Until the change is made, the airline must arrange alternative travel with other carriers when it cannot accommodate a passenger’s mobility aid.
The ruling came as a relief to Nataraj.
“To hear this news that WestJet has to scrap its weight limit was very reassuring to us,” he said. “We’re obviously really happy.”
Nataraj said physical limitations should not prevent someone from travelling within Canada or abroad.
“We’re disappointed that it had to come to this,” he said. “We obviously think that WestJet made incorrect policy decisions, and we wish that they would have come to their own understanding of that and changed their decision on their own.”
He said he is glad the Canadian Transportation Agency intervened.
“Overall, we’re really happy, and hopefully we can fly WestJet again with our daughter,” Nataraj said.
The case was brought before the regulator by Winnipeg’s Steven Fletcher, a former federal minister of state for transport. Fletcher filed the complaint after he was stopped from flying with his custom wheelchair on a WestJet flight between Winnipeg and Toronto early last year.
WestJet previously maintained the weight restriction was necessary for safety. The airline said it adopted the limit in 2024 following a technical analysis of how weight is distributed on the cargo floors of its Boeing aircraft.
WestJet told 980 CJME and 650 CKOM in a statement on Sunday that it had no comment.
“This matter currently remains before the Canadian Transportation Agency. WestJet respects that regulatory process and at this time, has nothing further to add,” its statement said.
WestJet previously told 14-year-old Georgia Nataraj’s father that her 400lb power chair was too heavy to be accommodated on flights out of Saskatoon. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)
Nataraj said WestJet eventually refunded the cancelled Mexico flights, although getting the money back took time. The family paid more after moving its Ireland travel to Air Canada.
“I don’t expect any reimbursements or anything like that,” he said.
The family is also planning a trip to Hawaii in February, but because it was booked before the ruling, the flights are through Air Canada.
Georgia had not heard about the decision when her father spoke with CJME and CKOM. She was away on a trip with her mother and sisters.
“I haven’t spoken to her about it yet,” Nataraj said. “I’m sure she’ll be thrilled, though.”
Read more:
