Affected by U.S. flight cancellations? Travel insurance might not help you

MONTREAL – As the U.S. government shutdown leads to thousands of cancelled flights, some Canadian travellers might be caught up in the stateside travel chaos. But there’s a chance that even those who bought travel insurance might be left holding the bag.

Aviation analytics firm Cirium says more than 8,000 departures south of the border have been cancelled since Friday, with the proportion of scrapped flights hovering around 10 per cent on Sunday and Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians fly to and from the U.S. each month. Travel insurer Marty Firestone says those who purchased cancellation insurance before the government shutdown was announced as a travel advisory should be eligible for compensation.

But he says travellers who held off or bought a policy more recently may be out o