Transport Minister Omar Alghabra promises to impose stiffer fines on air carriers that cause travelers to suffer undue delays and to simplify the complaints process with proposed changes to the passenger rights protection charter.
He introduced amendments on Monday aimed at giving more teeth to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) and which will make offsets the “default” rule, he pledged.
“The pandemic has shown that there were shortcomings in the regime,” said Mr. Alghabra at the opening of the press briefing.
He said exemptions that ensure an airline does not have to pay compensation to travelers due to significant delays to their flight routes will be very limited.
Currently, the APPR stipulates, for example, that air carriers do not have to pay money if the delays are due to security reasons.
The new list of exemptions has not yet been developed and should be developed after consultation.
Complaints processed faster
As a first step, the proposed changes must be adopted with Bill C-47 to implement measures from Budget 2022.
The Minister has announced that the maximum fines for an airline that contravenes the APPR will increase from $25,000 to $250,000.
The promised changes also aim to tackle the processing time for complaints at the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), which has accumulated significant backlogs.
Under the proposed changes, the CTA would no longer have to resolve these cases through an arbitration process and could, essentially, manage them internally.
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