Air Canada now offering some compensation over recent delays

Saying its initial response was "erroneous," Air Canada is now making cash offers to some travellers in compensation for the airline's recent flight disruptions.

The airline had initially said the technical glitch that caused the disruptions was out of its hands, relieving it of obligations to pay compensation.

One passenger, Douglas Judson, says he arrived more than three hours late after his June 1 flight from Winnipeg to Toronto was delayed due to a technical issue.

The airline emailed him to say the compensation he had been requesting did not apply because the disruption was caused by an event outside the airline's control.

But when contacted by The Canadian Press, the Montreal-based company said the response stemmed from an error.

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The federal government has announced several changes to the Air Passenger Bill of Rights, including closing loopholes that let airlines cancel or delay flights without giving compensation.

It says Air Canada is offering compensation in line with Air Passenger Protection Regulations for flights affected by the IT outage.

A spokeswoman says some passengers had received erroneous responses and the company is in the process of re-contacting them with the correct responses.

Outages caused widespread delays

The country's largest carrier has struggled with intermittent computer problems over the past 15 days.

On May 25 it delayed more than half its flights due to a "technical issue" with the system that the airline uses to communicate with aircraft and monitor their performance.

On June 1, it delayed or cancelled more than 500 flights — over three-quarters of its trips that day, according to tracking service FlightAware — due to "IT issues."

That same day, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra stressed the carrier's compensation responsibilities to its customers.