WestJet pays the large-carrier amounts under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations: CAD 400 for an arrival delay of 3 to 6 hours, CAD 700 for 6 to 9, CAD 1,000 for 9 hours or more. Its own claims page publishes that table. The condition is that the disruption was within WestJet’s control and not required for safety — and a strike is not.
How the airline takes the claim
WestJet runs a dedicated flight delay and cancellation claims page. It asks for your six-letter WestJet reservation code, a first and last name matching the itinerary or boarding pass, and a date of birth, and it states: “After completing the form below, you can expect a response within 30 days.” That 30 days is s.19(4) of the Regulations, not a service promise, so it is enforceable. Approved payments go to the email address you give, with electronic options for receiving the funds.
Out-of-pocket costs during the wait go through a separate expense submission route on WestJet’s interruptions page, which lists food, drink, communications and accommodation — the s.14 standards of treatment.
The strike exception is the one to check first
Section 10(1) of the Regulations lists “a labour disruption within the carrier or within an essential service provider such as an airport or an air navigation service provider” as a situation outside the carrier’s control, and the Canadian Transportation Agency’s labour disruptions page confirms the consequence: “no compensation for inconvenience is due when a flight disruption is considered outside an airline’s control.”
What survives is the itinerary. The CTA states the airline must rebook you on its next available flight within 48 hours, and if it cannot, you choose between a refund and alternate travel arrangements at no cost. WestJet’s own passenger-rights page repeats the same reading. So during a WestJet labour dispute the claim to make is the rebooking-or-refund claim under s.18, not the compensation claim — and there is no point spending a year on the second one.
Note where the line falls. A strike is outside control. A crew shortage is not named anywhere in s.10 or s.11, and the two are not the same thing. Ask under s.13 for the reason in writing before you accept either label.
One airline, fewer entities than there used to be
WestJet used to sell tickets under several brands, and claims aimed at the wrong company came back rejected. That has largely gone: Swoop was folded into WestJet’s existing 737 operations in 2023, and WestJet announced on 29 May 2025 that it had completed the integration of Sunwing Airlines, “successfully unifying all narrowbody operations under WestJet Airlines”. The Sunwing Vacations brand continues as a vacations provider rather than an operating airline.
If your boarding pass still shows a different operating carrier, s.2(1) puts the obligation on the carrier operating the flight, while s.1(4) provides that “a small carrier has the same obligations as a large carrier towards a passenger that it carries on behalf of a large carrier” and s.2(2) makes both jointly liable. A smaller partner operating a WestJet flight therefore owes the large-carrier figures.
Which regime applies to your WestJet flight
| Your flight | Regime |
|---|---|
| Within Canada, or between Canada and anywhere else | APPR — Canadian dollars, Canadian Transportation Agency |
| Departs an EU or UK airport | APPR and EU261 or UK261 — euro or sterling amounts as well |
WestJet’s European regulation page states that Regulation 261/2004 applies to its flights “departing from the European Union or United Kingdom”, and that is right: WestJet is not a Community carrier, so Article 3(1)(b) does not reach its flights into Europe. Article 3(1)(a) covers the outbound leg. The amounts are in the EU261 and UK261 amounts table. For a flight leaving a US airport, the DOT rules are a separate regime — see US passenger rights.
Compensation and treatment are two different claims. Even when a disruption is outside WestJet’s control and pays nothing under s.19, the rebooking or refund under s.18 still stands, and it is worth more than the compensation on a long-haul ticket. Claim it separately and do not let one refusal close both.
What does WestJet pay for delayed or damaged baggage?
Its interruptions page states the maximum liability as 1,519 SDR per passenger, which is the current Montreal Convention limit under Article 22(2). Section 23 of the APPR adds the baggage fee back on top and applies the Convention limit to domestic Canadian flights as well. The complaint clocks are short — 7 days for damage, 21 for delay — and they are set out in Montreal Convention baggage claims.
What if WestJet refuses?
Canada has no airline ADR scheme, so the Canadian Transportation Agency is the route. Its portal requires you to have written to the airline and waited 30 days first, which is exactly what the APPR claim letter is for. Keep WestJet’s written reason: the whole case usually turns on which of the three categories the disruption belongs in, and that is set out in the APPR amounts and control test.
Rules in force today
This is the law that applies to a flight you take today. A revision of Regulation 261/2004 was adopted in July 2026 — the Parliament approved the conciliation text on 7 July 2026 and the Council gave final approval on 13 July 2026 — and it is not yet in force: it applies 12 months after it enters into force following publication in the Official Journal, and the final text sets the details. See what the 2026 EU261 reform changes. Canada’s own APPR reform is pending as well, with no published coming-into-force date.