Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Cascadia Air

Lynn Laustrap is out both money and answers after Cascadia Air suddenly cancelled her Christmas flight to Pitt Meadows.

Her $550 round-trip was supposed to take her from Vernon to the Fraser Valley for a family holiday gathering from Dec. 23 to Dec. 27. She booked the flights on Oct. 5, but on Dec. 5, she was told those flights didn't exist.

After multiple refund requests since early December, the airline has since become unreachable by phone or email and officially stopped its operations.

"I have a feeling I'll have to bite the $550, but I'll go out trying because this is wrong," Laustrap said.

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Cascadia Air started offering flights from Vernon to the Lower Mainland on its eight-passenger planes earlier this year, getting approval from the City of Vernon in May. Less than a year earlier, it started flying out of Penticton to Lower Mainland airports.

Within the last month, its removed its Facebook page and calls to the business phone numbers return with a message that says the number is "not set up to take calls."

The City of Vernon, which owns the airport, confirmed Cascadia Air is "no longer in operation," but added it has no more information about what happened and declined an interview request.

For Laustrap, the airline seemed like a convenient alternative to driving over treacherous mountain highways in the winter. She prefers to avoid driving highways like the Okanagan Connector and the Coquihalla during the winter, but it makes visiting her large family in the Fraser Valley difficult.

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While Laustrap waits to see if she'll ever see her refund, which she was promised within a week of Dec. 8, the airline expects to reach out to customers about refunds in the near future, according to a statement on its website.

Cascadia did not respond to iNFOnews.ca's request for comment, and Laustrap doubts she'll see her refund at all.

"A $550 ticket is not going to break the bank, but let me tell you, I'm pissed off," Laustrap said. "I'd like to know what happened and how can they get away with this?"

Cascadia has fewer than a dozen employees, but its "high overall costs" made it "unsustainable to continue" operations, according to its online statement.

The statement did not provide a contact for follow up questions, only citing its author as "management."

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