Airline under fire after abandoning 14-year-old girl at airport terminal hundreds of miles from home

‘What did they expect for her to do? Sit on a bench, and sleep there for days and not even give her food?’

Mother Diomerys O’Leary shares her shock at airline that stranded her 14-year-old daughter in Toronto’s Pearson International Airport (CBC News)

Air Canada allegedly abandoned a 14-year-old at the Toronto airport more than 1,200 miles away from home following the cancellation of a Newfoundland-bound flight due to “labour disruption”.

The airline turned Eva away and asked her to find her own place to sleep, transportation and food. When the panicked teen’s mother Diomerys O’Leary asked her to seek help from the airline, she alleged her daughter was turned away by the airline twice.

“She was crying and desperate, asking me ‘What do I do?’ I just couldn’t believe it,” Ms O’Leary told CBC News.

Eva had come back to Canada from a trip to the Dominican Republic and was due to take a flight back home to St John’s city from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

The ordeal began when Ms O’Leary received a mail on 18 January notifying her that the flight had been cancelled and rescheduled for two days later.

“What did they [Air Canada] expect for her to do? Sit on a bench, and sleep there for days and not even give her food, or anything?” the mother questioned, adding she was scrambling to find Eva a place to stay as she waited alone at the airport.

She finally found an Airbnb for Eva to stay the night, booked an Uber for her and ordered food delivery.

After being put on hold by the airline for almost two hours, Ms O’Leary then booked a flight ticket to Gander town for Eva and purchased a bus ticket back home to St John’s.

“It was the worst day of my life. Even after I accommodated her, I wasn’t able to sleep that night,” she added.

Air Canada offers a for-fee service, where staff help kids fly on their own. However, that service wasn’t available for Eva, who was on the last leg of her journey from the Dominican Republic.

The airline alleged their call centre agent “offered to assist with accommodations, but the customer’s mother declined”.

Refuting the airline’s claim, Ms O’Leary provided a recording of that conversation to CBC News where the agent could be heard saying she could not help with accommodations.

Air Canada later said the agent tried to help “by instructing the mother on how to proceed”, adding that it was “generally not advisable” for children to travel alone on trips with connecting or international flights “due to the possibility of unforeseen flight disruptions outside the airline’s control”.