Johanne McInnis’ flight back home to Saint John, N.B., was cancelled six hours before it was supposed to take off from Pearson International Airport on Sunday night.

She and her husband, Graham MacKenney, went to the airport anyway, where they were assured by an Air Canada representative that they had been automatically rebooked on the next available flight home. The problem? It wasn’t leaving for two days.

“My husband just sort of looked at her and said, ‘What are we supposed to do for two days?’ And she just sort of looked at us,” McInnis told the Star.

The couple are just two of thousands of airline passengers whose travel plans have been disrupted by runway maintenance at Canada’s largest airport in the past six weeks.

The reconstruction of the longest and busiest of Pearson’s five runways began on March 28, and according to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, the arm’s length agency that operates Pearson, it has caused more than 1,000 flight cancellations and delays. All of the more than 65 carriers that operate at Pearson have been affected.

But what’s adding to the frustration for people like McInnis and MacKenney is that neither the airlines nor the GTAA appear willing to take financial responsibility for those affected.

The couple, who had been visiting Toronto for a whisky festival, asked the Air Canada representative if the company would reimburse them for the cost of two extra nights in a hotel.

“Nope, sorry, this isn’t our issue,” was the response, according to McInnis. “It’s not within our control so we can’t help you with any of those things.”

In the end, the couple arranged to fly to Moncton, N.B. late Sunday night, and have MacKenney’s father drive them the 150 kilometres back to Saint John in the morning. Both McInnis, a civil servant, and MacKenney, a manager at a university, had to miss a day of work.

Between a night in a Moncton hotel, extra hours of airport parking, and her father-in-law’s fuel costs, McInnis estimated that the couple is $700 out of pocket. Neither Air Canada nor the GTAA have agreed to pick up the tab.

“I think that’s really poor customer service,” she said.

“How unfair this is that two major corporations are forcing the consumer to pay for their inability to get their act together.”

Air Canada didn’t return multiple requests for comment on Monday. But in a statement sent to some customers last week, the company asserted that the runway work “is much more disruptive than anticipated” and had been exacerbated by severe rainstorms that hit the region.

The statement, which was attributed to Air Canada president Benjamin Smith, vowed the company was “doing everything within our power to help you get through the next few weeks with the least disruption.” The airline said it had instituted a flexible booking policy that would allow passengers to change their flights at no extra cost.

A spokesperson for WestJet, which is the country’s largest airline after Air Canada, declined to answer questions. Instead, she directed the Star to an online statement that said the GTAA had initially told all carriers the runway work would result in “minimal impact” on schedules, and the airline hadn’t significantly adjusted its flights.

While Hillary Marshall, a spokesperson for the GTAA, said “we regret the inconvenience caused to passengers” she confirmed that “we are not reimbursing people.”

“We certainly recognize that any time you come to the airport there can be operational issues and delays. We work our hardest to avoid those,” Marshall said.

In an interview, airline passenger advocate Gabor Lukacs said the primary responsibility for the disruptions rests with the airlines, because they, not the GTAA, enter into a contract with customers who buy tickets.

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He accused the companies of “sticking their heads in the sand” and selling tickets for flights that they should have known were at risk. He said the airlines should have realized the runway work would have “severe impacts.”

“Airlines simply continued selling tickets without any adjustment until very recently,” he said.

The runway work is among the most significant infrastructure work at Pearson in recent years. Crews are rebuilding the runway substructure, repaving it, and replacing about 1,400 lights. The work is scheduled to be complete next Tuesday.

While the maintenance is underway, the normal pattern of takeoffs and landings at the airport’s other runways, which is complex at the best of times, has been altered.

According to Marshall, the GTAA and the airlines met last year with NAV Canada, the private company that manages Canadian airspace, and agreed on a plan that would see only a “small deviation” from normal operations.

But just two days after construction began, NAV Canada adjusted the plan, in part because pilots complained about having to use shortened runways, Marshall said. She added that heavy rain in recent days has only added to delays.

The new runway operation has resulted in a temporary 35-per-cent reduction in capacity. Normally, between 1,200 and 1,300 flights arrive or depart Pearson every day.

Frustration at Pearson comes a month after video of the violent removal of a passenger from a United Airlines flight departing Chicago stoked public outrage over air carriers’ perceived mistreatment of passengers.

In April, days after the video went viral, the federal Liberal government reiterated its commitment to introduce legislation for an air passenger’s bill of rights. The legislation is expected later this spring.

“We recognize that when a passenger books a ticket, they are entitled to certain rights,” said Transport Minister Marc Garneau at the time.

With files from The Canadian Press

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