(OTTAWA) The Canadian Transportation Agency says the total number of complaints it handled about air travel rose last year, swollen by a backlog of problems carried over from the previous year.
Posted at 4:43 p.m.
The federal agency said it received 28,673 complaints in total for the 12-month period ending March 31, compared to 26,742 in the previous fiscal year.
The total for the most recent period included 12,158 new complaints, down approximately 8% from the previous year, to which were added 16,515 complaints carried over from the previous year.
The agency says it handled 15,264 complaints, down from 10,227 the previous year, with about half of the resolutions handled through the airline financial relief program.
The CTA reported that there were 13,409 complaints still outstanding at the end of the year, a number that represents a drop from the previous year and is in line with the total for the year that had ended. ended March 31, 2020.
Complaints increased from 2019, in part due to the coming into force of the Passenger Bill of Rights and known problems with Air Canada’s reservation system. The last days of the exercise also saw the first problems related to pandemic cancellations appear.