Federal elected officials sitting on a parliamentary committee will question airline representatives and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra on Thursday about the chaos in plane and train travel during the holiday season.
The first appearances of the day at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport are expected to be from Air Canada, Sunwing and WestJet.
Jeff Morrison, president of the National Airlines Council of Canada, which notably represents Air Canada and WestJet, expects carriers to be willing to improve their communication with their customers when their flight routes need to be revised. depending on cancellations or delays.
“It’s definitely something that I believe airlines and airports are going to look at in a ‘post mortem’ of all of this,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“It’s very important for the airlines to provide accurate information. When the situation was very fluid, it was difficult to have the information (when things) were still evolving,” he added.
Pressure has mounted in recent weeks for further action to further protect passenger rights.
The Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), commonly referred to as the “travellers charter”, already have provisions in place that include compensation for eligible consumers.
Experts and parliamentarians have publicly asserted that this is insufficient. Several also denounced delays in the processing of complaints made by consumers against airlines under this regulation.
On Wednesday, Minister Alghabra said he was open to new protections for travellers. “Is this an opportunity for us to look at the rules and our system in order to strengthen them, make them clearer and more effective? Absolutely,” he told reporters.
Conservative transportation critic Mark Strahl blames — at least partially — the delays and cancellations experienced by many Canadians over the holidays on Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.
“Canadians are suffering because of Trudeau’s failed transportation system and until the government is held to account to get it back on its feet, Canadians will continue to pay the price for their failure,” he said. he commented in a written statement.
Mr. Morrison, meanwhile, maintained that he believes “improvements” can always be made, but that the current “system” “works” when asked whether he believes Air Canada and WestJet are open to more stringent measures.
In a written statement, WestJet Vice President Andy Gibbons lamented that “airlines continue to be isolated as (the sole entities) of ownership and liability for travel to Canada when it should be a responsibility shared by the entire aviation ecosystem. »
“The proposed calls to change (regulation) to compensate all passengers automatically following delays or cancellations are not only out of step with other jurisdictions, but also fundamentally cumbersome, as airlines require passenger information to day in order to deal with these complaints in an appropriate manner. »
Air Canada has also implied that the burden of the passenger charter falls disproportionately on the shoulders of airlines. “While the air transport system is made up of many stakeholders who play an independent role in ensuring a hassle-free flight, air carriers are the only ones subject to enforceable standards and exposed to financial penalties under the APPR,” reads an email sent to The Canadian Press.
In addition, for both WestJet and Air Canada, it is the vice-presidents rather than their president and general manager (CEO) who will answer questions from members of the parliamentary committee on Thursday.
The air carriers explained that this is due to the short time for the committee to convene or the unavailability of their CEO.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh would like to see CEOs “come out of the shadows,” he said in a written statement. “Canadian travelers who are mistreated by airlines deserve an explanation. The least these wealthy CEOs can do is come out of the shadows, explain what went wrong and show Canadians how they are going to do better. »
Bloc member Julie Vignola, her party’s spokesperson for tourism, believes that the absence of leaders who find themselves at the top of the corporate hierarchy “betrays the disregard for the interests of air passengers with several carriers.
“The 30,000 complaints awaiting processing at the Transport Office testify to this: there is a deep problem in respecting the rights of air passengers”, she pleaded.
On the Sunwing side, the president will be present on Thursday.
With information from Stephanie Taylor