The 'Mexican game': How Air Transat misled passengers and aviation officials
Company hired charter jets incapable of flying non-stop, forcing passengers to endure refuelling stops
AirTransatinstructed a Canadian charter airline to mislead aviation authorities and its passengers about unscheduled stops on flights from Mexico, according to sources and a string ofemailsobtained by CBC News.
The problems stem from Air Transatneedingmore planes for its Mexico routes, and then hiring a charter airlinethat could only complete the route non-stop under ideal or favourable flying conditions.
The complicated saga beganin 2016 when AirTransathiredFlair Air, a B.C.-based charter company with a fleet of five olderBoeing737-400s.
The prescribed range of the 737-400 is 4,176 kilometres; the flight distance from Edmonton to Cancun is 4,248 km.
Two of the Flair planes had extra fuel tanks that would enable them to fly a full load of 156 passengers safely between Edmonton and Cancun at least when flying southbound, sayFlair pilots, who spokeon condition of anonymity.
When taking off in colder climates, jets don't use as much fuel, and flying south doesn't go against the prevailing jet stream.
But flying north witha full complement of passengers and luggage, taking off in a hot climate where it is more difficult tocreate thrust, and flying against headwinds requires much more fuel, often more than their planes can carry, the Flair pilots say.
AirTransat'smanager of commercial operations was prepared for the planes not being able to make the northbound flight non-stop. In anemailto Flair's director of flight operations,MauricioDiaz gave the followinginstructions.
"Due to Mexican authorities restrictions, we always need to file a direct flight (flight plans)CUN-YEG[from Cancun to Edmonton]," he wrote in a May 2016emailto Flair.
"Never fileCUN-MSY-YEG[Cancun-New Orleans-Edmonton] because it will be refused by [the Mexican authorities]," the email continues. "When the flight is airborne from [Cancun], you can plan the technical stop in [New Orleans] and advise ATC [air traffic control]."
Air Transat spokesperson Debbie Cabana refused to comment aboutthis email.
Passengers misled
Not only were passengers being misled about being on a non-stop flight, Flair's pilots say they were uncomfortable filing two flight plans.
"Problem is, what if you're flying across the Gulf [of Mexico], and you have a communications problem, and you enter American air space, land in Kansas City and nobody knows about it, post 9/11?" one pilot told CBC News, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"How do you think that is going to end?" he added, suggesting that he could be intercepted by U.S. fighter jets.
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"Airlines may divert to a different airport than the destination in their flight plan for a variety of reasons, as long as they are in contact with air traffic control," said U.S. Federal Aviation Administration spokespersonTammiJones. "Any aircraft that loses radio contact with air traffic control for an extended amount of time could be intercepted."
Passengers also had their flight times extended by as much as two hours.
The first flight of Flair's contract with Air Transat, on May 22, 2016, diverted to New Orleans. Two subsequent ones on May29 and June 5went through Kansas City.
Emailspells out 'Mexican game'
An email from Flair's director of flight operations, HaroldKnop, makes no mention of passenger dissatisfaction with the stopovers. Instead, he assured pilots that "Transathas advised us that this method has worked successfully and without any issues with previous operators and that there was no negative passenger reaction in these situations."
Knop's instructions which became known among pilots at Flair asthe "Mexican game" explained that "the passengers will not have been briefed prior to boarding."
'[Air] Transathas advised us that this method has worked successfully and without any issues with previous operators and that there was no negative passenger reaction in these situations.'- Harold Knop, Flair Air's director of flight operations
"The flight attendant manager has requested that the pilots make the applicable announcement to the passengers at the appropriate timeen routein cruise.The announcement should be clear, brief and truthful"
"'Ladies and gentlemen,'" suggestedKnopin the May 2016email. "'I would like to inform that we will be required to land in New Orleans in order to take on additional fuel for our flight to Edmonton. We will be landing at (xxxx) p.m. We expect to be on the ground for no more than 40 minutes. We apologize for this delay and the inconvenience.' Or something along that line."
AirTransat, in a series ofback-and-forthswith CBC News over six months, said it told its passengers via their "electronic travel documents" that there would berefuellingstops.
When asked if the airline had told Flair there were no customer complaints when making previously unscheduled stops with other carriers, Cabana, the Air Transat spokesperson, refused to answer.
Passengers not happy
In online travel forums, however, some people claiming to be AirTransatpassengers did complain about unexpected stops happening with other Flairflight paths to and from Mexico.
"It was advertised as non-stop from my travel agent," one person wrote about a Flair flight fromKelownato Cancun this past January. "The crew on board described it as a non-stop and made a point of telling the entire plane they normally made it without the stop.
"The crew said the stopovers were due to headwinds, runway length, and passenger load."
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CBC News examined theCancun-to-Kelownaflights made by Air Transat/Flair this past winter on Flight Stats, an online repository of historic flight data.
On 11 consecutive flights advertised as non-stop from Jan. 28 to April 8 all experienced stopovers: two of the flights landed in Winnipeg, eight of them landed in Regina, and one was diverted to Kansas City.
On two of southbound flights fromKelowna on Jan. 21 and Feb. 18 the jets stopped in Calgary to top up.
When CBC News again reached out to Cabana on the topic, she said: "Refuellingstops were not planned for any of the other flights, with the exception of the flights from Cancun to Edmonton [in May and June of 2016]. In all the cases, when a scheduled or unscheduled technical stop had to be added, the passengers were informed.
"Mexican authorities were also notified of a change in our flight route. Such situations were relatively rare during the winter season, which just came to an end."
Passenger rights advocate Lukacs called the conduct exposed by the leakedemailchain "an abuse of the public's trust."
"It demonstrates lack of oversight and enforcement by the Canadian government," he said.
Authorities respond
Transport Canadasaid all flight plans must be filed with Nav Canada for air traffic control and management.
Flights "can deviate from the plans but the differences small or significant need to be accounted for," said Transport Canada spokesperson Daniel Savoie, citing "weather, mechanical or human factors" as reasons for deviation.
There are no penalties for filing flight plans an airline has no intention offollowing, he said.
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"Airlines should ... make reasonable efforts to inform passengers of any delays, cancellations and schedule changes, and, to the extent possible, the reasons for them," said MartineMaltais, spokesperson forthe Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), an independent regulator that helps resolve travel-related complaints.
Unsatisfied passengers canfile a complaint with the CTAagainst the airline they purchased their ticket from, she added.
Flairreferred all route-related questions to AirTransat.
As for the Mexican authorities, they told CBC News there was no reason to file false flight plans: It is not against Mexican regulations to make a technical stop in the U.S., so there was no reason to play the original "Mexicangame."
For tips on this or other stories, contact John Nicolor Aaron Saltzman.
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