Instead of an hour flight, these WestJet passengers ended up riding a bus for 8 hours

Gilbert Proulx said he almost couldn't believe it when he looked at his phone.

He had just landed in Calgary on Sunday afternoon after a flight from Toronto. Proulx, his wife and two sons, 9 and 6, were returning from a trip to the Bahamas.

As the family prepared to dash off the plane to make their final connection to Regina, Proulx received a ping from WestJet.

Due to unscheduled maintenance, their flight had been cancelled, the email said. To get passengers home, ground transportation would be provided. 

"I had to do a double take," said Proulx, a teacher in Regina, in an interview on The Homestretch on Monday.

"I was sitting there, like, is this actually happening right now? You know, you pay good money to these airlines to provide you with transportation, and I'm sitting there, like, this is the best they can do for us right now?"

In an emailed statement to CBC Calgary, Denise Kenny, manager of public relations with WestJet, said the airline apologizes for the disruption to passengers' travel plans.

"Unfortunately, reaccommodation options were limited due to the high demand for travel over the weekend and significant weather events across Vancouver and Vancouver Island, which caused compounding operational impacts and limited aircraft availability," the statement read. 

"In order to best support impacted guests in reaching their destination as quickly as possible, ground transportation was arranged to provide an immediate travel option for those who were unable to wait for an alternative flight option."

For some passengers, the swap meant a one-hour flight became about an eight-hour bus ride through the night. 

Proulx said that after receiving the message, his wife and children went to find some food — which the airline had sent vouchers for — while he scoped out the bus situation. The email instructed passengers to meet at Gate 1 for 4:30 p.m. MT, about a half hour after they'd landed.

"By the time I got there, there was a pile of passengers already kind of just standing around," he said.

"I was actually really impressed with the overall vibe of a group of passengers being told that this was the only way that they were going to get home."

Proulx said staff on the ground told him the next available flight to Regina would leave three days later, on March 1.