Regina basketball player's family 'stuck' in St. John's after Air Canada flight cancelled

CBC

21 hours ago

The proud family of a Team Saskatchewan basketball player has been in St. John's for the Canada Summer Games. But three of them never made it home to Regina after Air Canada cancelled their flight.
Cancellations began happening all over Canada as Air Canada flight attendants walked off the job on Saturday, and were subsequently locked out. The strike forced Air Canada to cancel more than 2,000 flights, according to experts.
But as of Tuesday, a tentative agreement has been reached to end the contract dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants, both the airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees announced Tuesday.
The Lippai family travelled to St. John's on Aug. 8 to cheer on Joe Lippai, 17. Team Saskatchewan ended the games seventh overall on Saturday, an improvement on its 2024 outcome.
Joe Lippai's sister and parents were supposed to head back to Regina via Air Canada Sunday morning.
"We were actually at the their final game. The buzzer went and just as I went to stand up, my pocket buzzed, notifying us that our flight had been cancelled," Bill Lappai said.
When the family talked to an Air Canada agent about their options, they were told the earliest they could fly home would be Thursday.
The Lippais originally booked their hotel for nine days, which Carla Lippai said was expected to cost between $4,200 and $4,900 depended on day-to-day rate fluctuation.
Now that the family needs to extend their hotel stay, if the rescheduled flight does go out Thursday, they will be billed approximately $6,000 for the accommodation.
Athletes back home, families stuck on east coast
While his family is stranded, Joe Lippai and his teammates are already back in Saskatchewan. The basketball team took a Canadian North chartered plane to Saskatoon Sunday morning.
Carla Lippai said many families are in the same boat — the athlete is solo back in the province, while their families try to find a way to get back. While the chartered flight landed in Saskatoon, Team Saskatchewan athletes come from Prince Albert, North Battleford, Martensville, Regina, Yorkton and Moose Jaw — in addition to the Bridge City.
Carla Lippai said the family is glad their 17- year-old can drive himself back to Regina.
Jillian Lippai, 11 years old, is nervous about the wait. It's an especially busy time for the youngest Lippai. She is set to begin football Thursday, but will not be able to make it. She is also taking Taekwondo and will miss a class. She's also eager to get ready for the new school year, and said she misses her dogs 'so much.'
"I'm kind of worried that, like, for Air Canada, they're gonna like keep, like, cancelling our flights and stuff and then it's going to take so long to, like, actually get home," said Jillian Lippai.
Air Canada has confirmed the tentative deal in a statement and said that flights would gradually return beginning Tuesday evening.
"The suspension of our service is extremely difficult for our customers. We deeply regret and apologize for the impact on them of this labour disruption," said Michael Rousseau, the airline's president and CEO in a statement.
Air Canada operates around 700 flights daily. The airline had estimated on Monday that 500,000 customers would be affected by flight cancellations.
Rousseau advised customers to be patient as full restoration of service "may require a week or more."
"There's a lot of families impacted that need to get home. And it's not just people stuck here for Canada Games. There's people all across Canada, all over the world that are impacted," said Carla Lippai.
"So we need to get this resolved so we can carry on."