(Montreal) A parliamentary committee is recommending major changes to Canada’s air passenger rights framework, with a focus on tougher enforcement and compensation rules for flight delays.
The report of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities was tabled Tuesday after recent rather chaotic travel seasons, during the summer break and holiday season last year. These turbulent times at airports were caused by growing passenger demand post-pandemic, labor shortages and bad weather over Christmas.
Among 21 recommendations, the Commons committee suggests greater financial penalties, smoother processing of compensation claims, as well as offers of automatic payment after cancellations, long delays or denied boarding.
The committee further recommends placing the burden of proof on the airlines, which will have to demonstrate why compensation should not be awarded to travellers. It was also suggested that carriers bear the cost of resolving claims with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).
If the CTA determines that a customer’s rights have been violated, all passengers on the same flight should be notified and offered reimbursement or compensation, the committee also recommends.
The report also suggests that the federal government consider harmonizing its compensation rules with European regulations, even when delays are advertised as “necessary for security purposes” – an exemption from payment that the European Union does not allow. not, but which Canadian carriers often rely on, according to traveler advocates.
A year and a half for a complaint
The backlog of passenger complaints at the Canadian Transportation Agency stood at just under 45,000 on Tuesday, more than triple a year ago.
New backlog means it now takes more than a year and a half to process a case, prompting the Commons committee to recommend a review of the role of the Transportation Agency in the current enforcement model on the protection of air passengers. The committee discusses potential complaint handling agency models such as telecommunications and television, or banks.
Nadine Ramadan, spokeswoman for Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, said on Tuesday that the government would review the committee’s recommendations in the coming weeks.
“Many of the recommendations provided by the committee align closely with the work our government has done to make the necessary changes to our passenger rights regime,” she said in an email.
Minister Alghabra had pledged to strengthen the four-year-old Air Passenger Protection Regulations in a bill to be introduced this spring.
He told reporters last month that he would close the loophole that allows airlines to deny customers compensation for canceled flights. He also promised an additional $75.9 million over three years to reduce the backlog of complaints.
Gabor Lukacs, president of the organization “Travellers’ Rights”, described Tuesday as “very solid” the report of the Commons committee. “A lot of thought has gone into it,” he said.
Mr. Lukacs highlights some of the report’s key recommendations, most notably the closing of the loophole allowing carriers to dismiss compensation claims on the basis of “security reasons” – as provided for in the current air passengers.
Split Invoice
WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said last week that his company is asking the federal government to allow carriers to recover passenger compensation costs from other aviation industry partners if he believes that these partners played a role in flight delays or disruptions.
“There are airports, navigation, security, border control, there are ground handlers,” argued Mr. von Hoensbroech to journalists, adding that none of these parties is subject to the rules of protection of existing passengers as are the airlines.
“No matter what, it’s still the airline — and the airline essentially becomes the insurance company for the whole industry. »
The office of the Minister of Transport rejects this argument. “When a passenger purchases a ticket for air travel, it is a transaction between a passenger and the airline, and it is the responsibility of the airline to ensure that it meets its obligations. to passengers,” spokeswoman Nadine Ramadan said.
In the budget tabled last month, the Liberal government outlined plans to speed up airport security checks and reduce flight delays. After a year of chaos, the budget promised $1.8 billion over five years to the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.
The government also proposed a new rule that would require airlines and airports to share and report data, to reduce delays and strengthen coordination within the industry.
The budget also allows the Minister of Transport to impose a levy on carriers to help defray the costs of resolving passenger complaints. In theory, the measure would encourage carriers to improve their service and thus reduce complaints.
These two measures were among the 21 recommendations of the Commons committee on Tuesday.
Sylvie De Bellefeuille, a lawyer with the Quebec organization Option consommateurs, said she was “very happy” with the report, which recognizes the problems facing passengers.
“Their recommendations are aimed at changing the regulations so that passengers are better protected,” she said in a telephone interview.
Mr. Lukacs also wonders whether the complaint-handling models of the Council for Complaints for Telecommunications and Television Services or the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, as suggested by the committee, would really be appropriate for the ‘aviation industry.
A scarcity of fines is a testament to the Transportation Agency’s inability — or contempt — to enforce the law, traveler advocates say, with the committee pointing out that it employed just six compliance officers mid-January.
Total fines imposed on airlines and airports reached $725,380 in 2022-23, compared to $253,975 in 2021-22 and $54,500 in 2020-21, according to the regulator’s website. However, the most recent figure represents a fraction of annual airline sales — less than 0.04% of Air Canada’s $16.56 billion revenue last year, for example.