Air carriers really don’t have a knack for making sure their passengers stay calm when their flight is disrupted.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Customers of Air Canada, which canceled 15% of its flights this summer, found out the hard way last weekend, as reported by CBC News. Their flight from Toronto to Winnipeg was canceled around midnight, after being repeatedly postponed. Instead of a meal, a hotel room or financial compensation, the carrier only gave them… a yoga mat to sleep on the floor.
Great comfort!
This kind of scene is unfortunately not anecdotal. The Standing Committee on Transport of the House of Commons has just urgently summoned the Minister of Transport, Omar Alghabra, to a hearing to investigate these flight disruptions.
Around the world, the airline industry is struggling to regain the upper hand after the pandemic. But Toronto and Montreal airports are the planetary “champions” of late flights this summer, according to FlightAware.
This sad feat earned Canada the headlines in foreign newspapers, bad publicity of which there is nothing to be proud of.
But what is most shameful is that the injured passengers are unable to obtain the compensation to which they are nevertheless entitled under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations. Over the past four months, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) has received no less than 7,500 complaints, most of them for flight disruptions.
As soon as this Regulation came into force in 2019, it was written in the sky that travelers would have difficulty obtaining compensation because the “Travellers’ Charter” is of a totally confusing complexity.
Should the carrier pay compensation? It depends on a host of factors, but especially on the degree of responsibility of the carrier.
Let’s say the device is delayed due to a mechanical failure. The company is not responsible…unless the problem could be detected during routine maintenance. But how do you expect passengers who are not aeronautical engineers to know for sure?
Now let’s say that the plane remains grounded because an employee is missing. Normally, the carrier is responsible for a shortage of crew members… “unless it was impossible for it to prevent the flight disruption despite good planning”.
WestJet was also snubbed by the OTC last July on this subject. But that does not prevent the transporters from still using the lack of personnel to avoid their obligations.
As long as the line remains blurry, carriers will continue to make it rain or shine.
To cut short the endless interpretations, it would be much simpler to force carriers to compensate their customers every time, except in extraordinary circumstances, as is the case in the European Union.
Unfortunately, Canadian travelers still have to settle for second-class protection.
The latest evidence?
From September, the Travelers Charter will be tightened to force carriers to reimburse customers in the event of flight cancellations.
Oh sure, this is a step forward since the carriers had only offered credits during the pandemic, until Ottawa, after procrastinating for so long, forced them to reimburse.
However, this new rule will remain less advantageous than elsewhere. With us, carriers will be able to avoid reimbursement if they find an alternative flight within 48 hours, even if it does not suit the traveler, whereas in the United States or Europe, reimbursement is automatic.
But in any case, it is not enough to improve the Travelers Charter. It still needs to be applied with more bite. For the moment, the OTC is not a very formidable watchdog, he who does not check on his own initiative to ensure compliance with the rules.
The OTC simply handles complaints on a case-by-case basis. But who wants to file a complaint, knowing that the OTC is overwhelmed? You have to wait 15 months or even more when it comes to a formal complaint that follows a cumbersome and complex quasi-judicial process.
The OTC must be more proactive, faster and… tougher. Because since the launch of the Regulations, the CTA has imposed penalties totaling $100,000 on carriers. A peccadillo!
Suffice to say that we let them drive on a road without a police officer or ticket… hoping that they respect the speed limit. And too bad for passengers who are forced to struggle to get their due.
To simplify their lives, why not automate compensation, as is already the case for overbookings where the carrier has 48 hours to pay the compensation?
Otherwise, why not create a centralized system for managing compensation instead of leaving injured passengers in the dark?
It would help travelers stay zen… much more than a yoga mat.