‘All options on the table’, but no plans to ground 737 Max 8 in Canada: Garneau

Transport Minister Marc Garneau says “all options are on the table” with regard to the country’s fleet of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, but that the government currently has no plans to order the grounding of the plane.

“We will continue to evaluate the situation,” Garneau told reporters Tuesday in French.

“All options are on the table. That could include grounding the planes, but at the same time I will evaluate all possibilities and not jump to conclusions before we can clearly evaluate the situation.”

Garneau’s comments came minutes after announcements from the U.K., Germany, France and Ireland that they were grounding or closing airspace to the new Boeing plane involved in the Ethiopian Airlines disaster.

The announcements come on the heels of similar moves by Australia, Singapore, Ethiopia, Indonesia and China.

Air Canada has cancelled four flights over the next three days flying in and out of London’s Heathrow Airport from St. John’s and Halifax due to the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority banning all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in their airspace.

AC 860 from Halifax to London on March 12, AC 861 from London to Halifax and AC 822 from St. John’s to London March 13, and AC 823 from London to St.John’s have all been cancelled.

Meanwhile, customers looking to cancel or change their plans in order to avoid flying on a 737 Max 8 are running into resistance.

Flight Centre travel agency has said Canadian airlines are not waiving flight-change or cancellation fees for passengers who want to switch to another aircraft.

The stance from Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd., which collectively tout 37 Max 8s in their fleets, comes amid a wave of requests from worried travellers so far excluded from goodwill policies.

Air Canada and WestJet did not respond immediately to requests for comment on fee waiving.

Later Tuesday, the union representing Air Canada flight attendants issued a statement saying workers do not want to be forced to fly on Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.

“The Air Canada Component of CUPE who represents flight attendants at Air Canada mainline and Rouge is calling on the company to at a minimum continue to offer re-assignement to crew members who do not want to fly on this type of airplane,” said component president, Wesley Lesosky. “The safety of passengers and crews must be the absolute priority.”

The component of CUPE that represents WestJet cabin crew members also issued a statement Tuesday.

“At present we believe that going to work on any of WestJet’s 121 Boeing 737 jets is safe,” said the statement.

The Ethiopian Airlines crash, which killed all 157 people on board — including 18 Canadians — has raised concerns over parallels to a Lion Air crash of the same model of aircraft in Indonesia last October that killed 189 people.

Garneau said Monday that his department is working with the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority to determine if action is required. Boeing said the FAA has told the U.S.-based aircraft manufacturer it must install safety-related software updates to the 737 Max 8s.