Passengers booked with
All flights scheduled
The airline said it was unable to overcome compounding financial pressures associated with inflation, fuel costs, exchange rates, cost of capital, regulatory costs and competition in the Canadian market.
"It is with a heavy heart we leave the skies," Lynx said in a statement on its website.
"We hope in our absence that our vision to inspire more Canadians to fly leaves its mark on our passengers."
But some travellers said Friday morning that chaos had already begun three days before the airline is officially set to shut down.
"We lined up to get ready to board, then they actually told us to step back down and about five minutes after they told us that our flight was cancelled," she said.
"They told us to essentially leave the airport."
Saied, who found a replacement ticket at an "extremely high price," described the situation as a "fiasco."
"It's really frustrating," she said.
The couple had booked their departing flight on Lynx along with a return flight on
"From what they've been telling us on the phone, there's no impact on the return flight and we have to take the return flight even though we don't have an outgoing flight anymore," he said.
"It's just a matter of deciding if we're cancelling the trip altogether or if we are just buying a very expensive last-minute ticket to still go on the trip."
While they initially paid about
Meanwhile, he said his girlfriend's credit card company informed them they have to dispute the charge for their cancelled Lynx booking, a process that would take 14 days to determine an outcome.
"Basically nobody has the answers now about what to do," he said. "So we have to act not knowing what's going to happen."
WestJet said it was ready to help mitigate some of the issues for travellers. The airline said it will offer discounted fares for stranded domestic travellers and capped fares for Canadian repatriation flights on non-stop WestJet routes previously served by Lynx.
All economy cabin fares that meet that criteria are eligible for a 25 per cent discount
"We are communicating closely with government officials and supporting agencies that are also working to address the needs of those impacted," WestJet said in a statement.
"These fares will be available for purchase before
The airline said it also plans to incrementally add capacity of more than 6,000 seats on Lynx routes from
Speaking at
"This is my first time flying with Lynx and I'm not impressed with customer service and the late notice," she said.
"Very stressful, a lot of anxiety and disappointment."
Beyond the immediate impact to be felt by travellers, the
As of the end of last year,
The document said Lynx operates a uniform fleet of nine Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Doerksen said one of the financial backers of Lynx was
"The fact that even with the help of an experienced investor,
He added Lynx's exit from the market should have positive implications for the larger carriers in
"They basically decided it was time to take on the new guys," Gradek said.
"That put some downward pressure on prices from both Flair and Lynx in order to maintain a gap and that's a fast road to bankruptcy, which is what happened."
But he said Lynx has chosen to pull the plug at a particularly bad time for passengers, with spring break just around the corner.
"Anybody who's booked ... is going to have a hard time finding equivalent space on other carriers because there's no room left on other carriers to carry Lynx's passengers," Gradek said.
"That, to me, is flying in the face of trying to come out of a Canadian marketplace with grace."
— With files from Maan Alhmidi in
This report by The Canadian Press was first published
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