OTTAWA — A hearing begins this morning into whether Air Transat broke its contract with passengers aboard two international flights that sat for hours on an Ottawa tarmac earlier this summer.

The airline and airport have blamed one another for the delay that amounted to almost six hours for one plane and almost five hours on the second.

Passengers aboard the planes as well as the airport authority are scheduled to testify today with Air Transat officials telling their side of the story Thursday.

Storms forced two Montreal-bound Air Transat flights, one from Brussels, the other from Rome, to land in Ottawa on July 31, along with several other flights that had to be rerouted.

One passenger aboard the Brussels flight dialled 911 to get help.

Broader discussions about how the airline industry must respond to tarmac delays is not the focus of today’s hearings and instead will be dealt with after Parliament approves the Liberals’ proposed air passenger rights bill.

The Liberals plan to pass their bill, known as C-49, before the end of the year with hearings on the legislation set to begin in early September, even before the House of Commons officially resumes sitting after its summer break.