Top court agrees to hear case involving airlines’ treatment of obese passengers
OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has granted Delta Air Lines leave to appeal a ruling that found a Halifax passenger rights advocate could stand up for obese people even though he isn’t overweight himself.
The court ruled Thursday that it would look at an earlier Federal Court of Appeal ruling involving Gabor Lukacs and a complaint he had originally filed to the Canadian Transportation Agency in 2014.
The complaint was over Delta’s practice of bumping obese travellers from flights or making them relocate or buy two seats on a plane, which Lukacs argued discriminates against large passengers and should be banned. The agency dismissed the complaint because it found that Lukacs had no private or public standing in the matter because he wasn’t directly affected by it.
The federal appeal court disagreed in a ruling last September and ordered the agency to take another look at Delta’s policy.