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Hundreds of European travellers stuck in Montreal after airline cancels flights

MONTREAL — During their two-week Canadian vacation, Jessie Brillouet and her three friends visited Niagara Falls and went whale watching in Tadoussac, Que. — but they’ve also seen more of Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport than they ever wanted to.
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MONTREAL — During their two-week Canadian vacation, Jessie Brillouet and her three friends visited Niagara Falls and went whale watching in Tadoussac, Que. — but they’ve also seen more of Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport than they ever wanted to.

When the Hungarian residents arrived at the airport last Saturday, they saw on the departures board that their flight to Paris had been cancelled, with no representative from the airline in sight.

Brillouet and her friends were a few of the hundreds of passengers who were thrown into limbo after Spanish airline Level unexpectedly cancelled its Saturday and Monday flights from Montreal to Paris, citing ”operational reasons.”

After Monday’s plane didn’t take off, Brillouet said she was told the next available Level flights were scheduled for Thursday and Saturday — the latter a full week after the original flight.

“What are we supposed to do?” she told The Canadian Press on Wednesday. ”We have to work, we have to pay our rent.”

Brillouet says her frustration has been compounded by the fact the airline rarely has staff present at the airport and has been hard to reach over the phone.

“We (have been) between the hotel and the airport, on the phone there or here, trying to find someone from Level, because they don’t have anyone here, and on the phone it’s impossible,” she said.

In a statement, the airline said it was working to rebook its passengers and promised to reimburse them for the costs of their flight and accommodation.