Airline delays continue after Christmas for Nobleford woman

A Nobleford man stuck at Lethbridge Airport over the holidays says his wife had to endure another long wait at the Calgary International Airport on her way home this week after she sat 12 hours waiting for a flight to Lethbridge.

Nobleford resident Dennis Brady and his wife were part of a group of people forced to wait nearly 22 hours before Christmas as delays pegged on mechanical issues grounded their flight.

Ultimately, Brady’s wife carried on alone and Brady himself was forced to abandon his Christmas trip to see their daughter and grandson in B.C.

This past Sunday, on her return flight home, Brady said his wife was forced to wait once again for long hours with very few updates.

While she was scheduled to arrive in Lethbridge from Calgary at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, she instead arrived at the Lethbridge Airport at 1 a.m. Monday.

The flights are operated by Air Georgian on behalf of Air Canada. Brady said he has been unable to contact anyone at Air Canada. He also said he is concerned to see mechanical issues again listed as the cause of the delays.

“You can’t get ahold of them,” he said. “There’s one number and that’s it. And they have people who really don’t give a damn if you do call.”

Brady said he feels that Lethbridge calls are not a priority for airline companies as they are coming from a small city. He noted his concern for keeping the Lethbridge Airport, and how damaging to the reputation of the facility these types of issues can be.

He said there has still been no good communication with the company, and they are preparing to write a letter to Air Canada describing the situation.

He added he is frustrated by the fact they spent a lot of money on their flights and still have had to deal with a lot of issues.

“We didn’t go Air Miles,” he said. “We went full price. We even had insurance. And then we get treated like that. And the same thing happens to my wife coming home, as what happened when she was going,” he said.

Brady said if the company would have been up front and honest about the delays from the beginning, he would have been able to drive to Calgary on his own and pick up his wife.

“We would have been back home in the afternoon,” he said. “But they made us wait until 12:30 a.m. And she didn’t even know at that time if she was actually getting on the plane.” “We’re 70 years old,” he said. “We’re just beat. It’s terrible to put people through that. It’s so frustrating. There are no customer relations. There is nothing.”

Air Georgian could not be reached for comment by deadline.