The backlog of air passenger complaints to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) has reached a new high of more than 57,000, as dissatisfaction over cancellation and compensation terms persists, three years and half after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The figures reveal that on average, more than 3,000 complaints per month have accumulated at the CTA over the past year, with the current number well over three times the September 2022 total.
Vancouver residents Chad Kerychuk and Melissa Oei say they are considering filing a lawsuit after arriving in Halifax six hours later than planned on a flight from Vancouver in August 2021 and becoming separated on the plane , even if they had paid more for their tickets to be able to select their seat in advance. The couple claims WestJet rejected their request for a partial refund. “More than a year has passed since the departure date and the claim period has expired. Therefore, your claim cannot be approved,” the company responded by email.
Mr. Kerychuk said this response “seemed like a poor way to treat loyal customers” since they have spent years choosing this carrier over its competitors. “No effort was made to support us as we supported them during the pandemic. And I found that completely unfair,” he argued in a telephone interview.
WestJet informed them that the disruption was caused by unscheduled maintenance — an exclusion from compensation rules that carriers will soon no longer be able to use to deny compensation.
In June, the government passed legislation to revise Canada’s Passenger Bill of Rights, including measures to toughen penalties and close gaps in traveler compensation, as well as streamline the complaints process in its entirety. “There will no longer be loopholes allowing airlines to claim that a disruption is caused by something outside their control for safety reasons when that is not the case,” Omar assured journalists. Alghabra, then Federal Minister of Transport, in April.
The Canadian Press has contacted the CTA and WestJet for comment.
A poorly designed regulation
Although some reforms are not expected to take effect until September 30, the president of the air passenger advocacy group Travelers Rights, Gabor Lukacs, says the CTA could take immediate action to increase the maximum fine in the event of violation of rights by airlines, and launch consultations to determine who should bear the regulatory costs of complaints.
The increase in the number of complaints does not surprise Mr. Lukacs. “These surging figures show the government’s inability to design regulations that are truly enforceable and offer meaningful protection to passengers,” he said.
He pointed to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, which the government introduced in 2019 — in theory a legal step for Canadian travelers, but which have failed to deliver due to loopholes and a lack of simplicity , according to him. “The government has adopted a regime so complicated, so complex […] that it takes disproportionate resources to actually verify eligibility,” lamented Mr. Lukacs.
He also denounced a “dismal record” in terms of application. “The few fines that are imposed are for really simple offenses […] and the CTA has not really prepared the ground to impose higher fines. »
The rule amendments allow the regulator to increase the maximum penalty for airline violations to $250,000 — an amount 10 times higher — and pass the regulatory cost of complaints onto carriers. In theory, this measure would encourage airlines to improve their service and thus reduce the number of grievances against them.