Travellers say Air Canada misled passengers whose Vancouver plane was rerouted to Winnipeg

After spending the night on the floor of Toronto's Pearson International Airport, Silvino Braga says he and his fellow Winnipeg-bound passengers were shocked to hear how Air Canada planned to fly them home.

Braga says airline staff announced they would be cancelling a flight to Vancouver and redirecting it to Winnipeg instead.

But he says the Vancouver-bound passengers were given a different story — Air Canada gate staff told them their flight was being cancelled due to a safety issue.

"[The Winnipeg passengers] are all standing there, we look at each other and said, 'Wait a second. They just lied to those Vancouver people,'" said Braga.

"There isn't anything wrong with the plane, they're giving it to us."

The Winnipeg-bound passengers were likely happy to be leaving Pearson, after being given yoga mats to sleep on when their flights out of Toronto were cancelled the day before. But what unfolded on Sunday left Braga wondering if Air Canada had been lying to him, too.

"We don't know who to believe," he said, "There was so much misinformation."

Flight AC113 was supposed to leave Toronto and arrive in Vancouver on Sunday.

On Air Canada's website, the reason for AC113's cancellation reads: "We're sorry, this flight is cancelled due to a technical issue from an earlier flight which is causing the aircraft that is scheduled to operate your flight to not be available."

It was rebranded as a Winnipeg-bound flight, AC2069. It boarded immediately and flew passengers to Winnipeg.

CBC confirmed the same aircraft was used.

While Air Canada's statement is technically true — the flight was cancelled because of an earlier technical issue — Braga says the Vancouver passengers were led to believe it was their plane that had the technical issue.

"[People] were lied to," Braga said, adding he believes it was done by Air Canada "in a way that they hope that they don't have to reimburse anybody."

Birnie McIntosh and Tracy Taylor were also passengers on the Winnipeg flight. After spending the night advocating for themselves and other passengers who were left to fend for themselves by Air Canada, they saw Air Canada gate staff telling the Vancouver-bound passengers their flight was cancelled. Then they saw the flight board change from Vancouver to Winnipeg.