Air Canada Class Action Lawsuit Seeks Money for Delayed Flights

Airline passengers have filed a class action lawsuit against Air Canada and Ukraine International Airlines over extreme flight delays and the “willful indifference” of airline employees.

Plaintiffs Vasyl Rusak, Olexander Zuck, Larissa Schevchenko, Volodymur Bukowski, and Svetlana Bukowski claim that they were scheduled to depart on a flight from Chicago to Kiev, Ukraine, on a flight that had a connecting stop in Toronto, Canada, and then were scheduled to fly from Ukraine back to Chicago.

The passengers allege that they were delayed for long periods of time and had flights canceled due to the alleged negligence of Air Canada and Ukraine International Airlines.

They claim that their flight departing from Chicago was delayed by three hours or more or was canceled. Additionally, they say the flight departing from Toronto was also delayed many hours.

According to the Air Canada class action lawsuit, during their trip, the passengers were “confined at various areas of O’Hare International Airport and Toronto International Airport without or with very limited access to food, refreshments, and lavatories” for between 12 and 24 hours.

The passengers say that the flights were delayed because the two airlines did not pursue reasonable measures to avoid such delayed in the travels, and because they failed to mitigate the consequences of the delays to their passengers on the delayed and canceled flights.

Rusak and others argue that the airline employees were “not willing to provide any care for estranged passengers.”

The Air Canada class action claims that the airline employees failed to notify the passengers why the delays were occurring, if the delays would be extensive, and did not tell passengers how long the departing flights would be delayed.

The passengers say that they were injured by the airlines’ alleged indifference because they were between 12 and 24 hours late to their scheduled activities and travel plans. Allegedly, the delays caused them to miss “important family reunions, funerals,” and other events.

The Air Canada delayed flight class action claims that the plaintiffs were injured by Air Canada and Ukraine International Airlines because of the stress and inconvenience caused by the delays.

The passengers also say that they were financially injured because they did not receive the full benefit of the cost of their ticket or their trip, and were forced to use paid vacation to take a trip that they did not get to enjoy as fully as they anticipated, and instead had to spent the time waiting for a flight that was delayed.

Rusak and the other passengers seek damages on behalf of themselves and on behalf of all of the other customers on the flights, who were similarly injured and inconvenienced by the airline’s negligence and alleged mistreatment of customers during the delay.

The passengers are represented by Vladimir M. Goroshovsky of Goroshovsky Law Office LLC.

The Air Canada Flight Delays Class Action Lawsuit is Vasyl Rusak, et al. v. Air Canada, et al., Case No. 1:18-cv-08379, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.