(Calgary) A consumer rights advocate says two recent regulatory rulings ordering Canadian airlines to compensate passengers for flight disruptions won’t be enough to improve air travel in this country.
Posted at 9:31 p.m.
In an interview, Gábor Lukács — founder of the advocacy group Travelers Rights — said that the separate decisions made this summer by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) in favor of passengers whose flights were canceled due to understaffing only serve to stifle the complaints of the thousands of Canadians who have suffered from airport backlogs and flight delays over the past year.
“These two decisions are isolated and exceptional incidents of the OTC doing what it is supposed to do,” Lukács said.
“These two decisions (serve as) helpful case law for passengers who are taking airlines to Small Claims Court instead of wasting months or years waiting for the CTA. However, they offer no meaningful recourse to passengers who place their hopes in the OTC. »
In August, the CTA — a quasi-judicial tribunal — ordered Air Canada to pay $1,000 each to Lisa Crawford and her son, including the August 2021 flight from Fort St. John, British Columbia, to Halifax, was delayed 16 hours.
Earlier this summer, the CTA also ordered WestJet to pay $1,000 to a passenger whose canceled flight from Ottawa in July 2021 meant he arrived at his destination in Regina, Saskatchewan, 21 hours later than scheduled. .
In both rulings, the CTA ruled that staffing shortages are the responsibility of the airline and not a safety issue as the airlines had argued. Under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, airlines are only required to compensate passengers for delayed and canceled flights if the reason for the disruption is within the airline’s control.
WestJet filed a notice of motion indicating its intention to appeal the decision, while Air Canada said it was still reviewing the CTA’s decision. Both airlines declined to comment further on the matter.
But Lukács said the CTA currently has a backlog of thousands of complaints from Canadians affected by flight cancellations and delays amid the pandemic. He said that while compensation is one thing, what the CTA should really be doing is imposing tough monetary penalties on airlines that fail to comply with Canada’s air passenger protection legislation.
The federal transportation regulator unveiled the original Air Passenger Protection Regulations in 2019, outlining how airlines were to communicate and reimburse or compensate travelers for disruptions ranging from delayed flights to damaged luggage. There were, however, exemptions for delays and cancellations beyond the airline’s control, such as major weather events — or a pandemic.
The updated guidelines introduced earlier this month are an attempt by the federal government to close loopholes that have prevented some passengers from getting cash refunds after pandemic-related flight delays and cancellations. Now, airlines will be required to issue full refunds for cancellations and delays if passengers are not placed on a new flight within 48 hours, including for reasons beyond the airline’s control.
“These new requirements specify the timelines, cost coverage, method of payment and timelines for the reimbursement of travelers in such situations,” Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement.
“They have been established in such a way that they are fair and reasonable for passengers, without imposing an undue financial burden on air carriers which could lead to increased travel costs. »
Air Canada and Porter Airlines, along with 17 other plaintiffs, including the International Air Transport Association — which has some 290 member airlines — said in a court filing that payments required under the new Air Passenger Bill of Rights of the country violate international standards and that these requirements should be invalidated.