Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press
Posted Tuesday, January 10, 2023 6:42 pm EST
OTTAWA – Canada should make air travelers automatically entitled to compensation from airlines when their flights are disrupted, rather than having to make claims on their own, a passenger advocate said Tuesday.
Gabor Lukacs serves as president of Air Passenger Rights, a nonprofit group that made recommendations to a parliamentary committee studying transportation issues last month.
Starting Thursday, that same group of MPs will begin an emergency study into the chaos that erupted at the country’s airports and airlines over the holidays, including what will likely be a questioning of Transport Minister Omar Alghabra by opposition members on how the government plans to tackle the problem.
“Airlines are taking advantage of the regulatory environment, where enforcement is basically non-existent,” Lukacs said in an interview on Tuesday. “That’s where the problem lies.”
A winter storm that swept through parts of the country before Christmas Day brought trouble to what was already a hectic travel season. The airline industry is still recovering after travel ground to a halt for the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to widespread layoffs in the industry.
Thousands of passengers had their flights canceled or delayed due to bad weather. But what worries political leaders most is how the passengers say they were treated.
Hundreds of Sunwing customers were stranded in Mexico after the vacation destination airline canceled their trips. Thousands more were left struggling after the airline canceled flights out of Saskatchewan through February 3 due to what it called “extenuating circumstances.”
Other passengers described inadequate or lack of communication from airlines and having to sleep on airport floors while waiting for answers.
Alghabra called what happened over the holidays “unacceptable”.
His office said Tuesday that he was not available for an interview, but provided a statement outlining possible changes to regulations that offer protection to airline passengers.
The rules introduced in 2019 impose what the Canadian Transportation Agency, the federal regulator, calls the “minimum airline requirements.” They describe when travelers are eligible for compensation for mishaps such as lost luggage, tarmac delays, and cancellations.
Nadine Ramadan, a spokeswoman for Alghabra, said work had been underway since before the holidays on how to strengthen the existing regime. She said the government’s intention is to introduce legislation sometime in the spring.
“These changes will help increase efficiencies and hold airlines accountable for reimbursing passengers,” it said in a statement.
“All options are on the table to ensure that what happened over the holidays doesn’t happen again.”
In a report submitted to lawmakers last month, Lukács’s group recommended legislative changes so that airlines must compensate “promptly and without the passenger having to request payment” when it comes to delays and cancellations.
He said that the way it works right now, a passenger who feels they are entitled to compensation should send a letter to the company requesting payment.
From there, he says, the airline is supposed to respond within 30 days, either agreeing to provide the compensation that was requested or explaining why it doesn’t believe the traveler is owed money.
“(The) mere fact that you as a passenger have to go up to the airline and say, ‘Hey, I want my compensation,’ is a problem,” Lukacs said, because many passengers don’t know their rights.
He said that what often happens is that travelers do not accept the justification provided by an airline to avoid paying, so they take their claims to the Canada Transport Agency in the hope of seeking compensation.
That’s where another problem lies, according to lawmakers: The regulator faces a backlog of more than 30,000 complaints.
An agency spokesperson said that as of December 20, 2022, it had 31,000 pending complaints. In the time since, which included the chaos of vacation travel, he has received another 2,800.
Conservative MP Mark Strahl, who sits on the committee, said in an interview that he believes Alghabra should hold the agency accountable for resolving complaints in a timely manner.
One of the problems, he said, is that there don’t seem to be any established service standards for the agency when it comes to timeframes for handling claims.
Strahl said he would support airlines automatically compensating passengers, adding that he believes the system should operate in a way that benefits travelers over businesses.
“Someone in seat 13B might know, but in 13A they don’t, so one gets compensation, the other doesn’t,” he said of the existing measures.
“Once a flight is deemed to have been in breach, all passengers should be compensated.”
The NDP has also raised concerns about the existing regime and has asked for details on when Alghabra plans to make changes.
Since the chaos of vacation travel extends to train passengers, Strahl suggested that passenger protections could be extended to other transportation customers, such as those who travel by train.
Over Christmas weekend, a CN Rail derailment caused the cancellation of trains between Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. Passengers traveling on a train between Ottawa and Toronto were also stranded with limited access to toilets and food for nearly 20 hours.
On Tuesday, Via Rail Canada CEO and Chairman Martin Landry issued an apology, saying the Crown corporation should have been “more communicative in sharing information about trains that were delayed and in providing updates.”
“We also know that we should have taken a different approach to support passengers on trains that have been delayed for extended periods,” Landry said in the statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on January 10, 2023.