Earlier this week, Canadian officials ordered the evacuation of Yellowknife, the capital of the country’s Northwest Territories. A 400,000-acre wildfire is just ten miles away from the city of 20,000 people. The Canadian military has been mobilized to help fight the wildfire and evacuate residents. Every resident was given a deadline of noon today to leave — and Air Canada has been accused of price gouging those attempting to flee by air.
Posts on social media have highlighted the ticket price discrepancies between flights before and after the deadline. The airfare listed on the carrier’s website was four times higher than the typical price. Reuters reports Air Canada has denied the allegations. However, the statement from the Canadian flag carrier focused on more exaggerated claims. The release stated:
“The examples on social media are aggregated fares by websites which are not in line with what we are offering on our non-stop flights from Yellowknife. For example, some involve several stops and other carriers, with some trips lasting as much as 21 hours, when a normal non-stop Yellowknife-Calgary flight is two hours. We endeavor to get these aggregated fares corrected where possible – however, customers should always ensure they are purchasing the non-stop fares directly from the aircanada.com website or from a travel agent to avoid the multi-leg routings.”
Air Canada has also stated that it has placed a price cap on non-stop flights out of Yellowknife as well as scheduled additional flights. The carrier flew two more flights on Thursday and an extra service on Friday. The airline aimed to fly 5,000 people out of the periled city. WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, has also taken steps to limit airfare increases. Inuit-owned Canadian North canceled all of its commercial flights out of Yellowknife and deployed its aircraft to assist the government-run evacuation efforts.
