Delta Given Green Light To Appeal Discrimination Charge Ruling

Delta Air Lines will have its day in court after all. The carrier, accused of being discriminatory against overweight passengers, has won the right to appeal a lower court ruling in a case that has been ongoing since 2014, according to the CBC.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday it will allow Atlanta-based Delta to argue the Federal Court of Appeal ruling, which overturned a Canadian Transportation Agency edict that originally refused to hear the case brought by airline passenger activist Gabor Lukacs.

In 2014, Lukacs complained to the transportation agency after obtaining an email in which a Delta representative responded to a customer concerned about a fellow passenger who needed additional space on the plane, the CBC reported.

The Canadian Transportation Agency declined to investigate the complaint because Lukacs himself is not obese. But in September of 2016, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the transportation agency violated the Canadian Transportation Act, specifically Canada’s one-person/one-fare policy introduced in 2008. That law requires airlines to cover costs on domestic flights for people with disabilities who are accompanied by an attendant or need additional seating.

"What the airlines are trying to do — Delta in particular — is pitting passengers against passengers instead of just accommodating ... passengers who need that, which is what is supposed to happen in Canada," Lukacs told the CBC.

Delta has been accused of discriminatory practices dating back at least two years.  A Muslim woman wearing a hijab said she was harassed in Feb. 2015 on a Delta flight from Fort Lauderdale to Detroit, and in August of 2016, a Muslim couple accused Delta of Islamophobia for throwing them off a flight after, they allege, the flight crew had noticed them "sweating" and saying the word "Allah,".

And in October of 2016, an incident came to light in which an African-American female doctor tried to help a passenger having a medical issue but was rebuffed by the flight crew, which didn’t believe she was a doctor.

Follow @TravelPulseCA