OTTAWA – Canada’s airlines say travellers will ultimately pay the price of new passenger protection bills and the burden for keeping people moving shouldn’t rest solely with them.
After a disastrous 2022 season in the skies — with delays, cancellations and stranded travellers across the country — Transport Minister Omar Alghabra introduced changes to the government’s passenger bill of rights. The changes are contained in the government’s budget legislation and should be in force by the fall. Alghabra said he felt the airlines forced his government to bring in tougher rules after last year’s performance.
“I really think airlines left government no choice, after what we saw, to further clarify the rules and make sure that passenger rights are protected,” he said.
Under the current system, air travellers who face delays and cancellations for problems in the airline’s control are eligible for refunds and compensation. In cases like snowstorms, where the problem is outside of their control, passengers are eligible for refunds, but not compensation.
If an airline refuses to provide compensation, passengers can complain to the Canadian Transportation Agency, but that agency has become backlogged with over 40,000 outstanding complaints. The new changes require airlines to pay part of the cost of processing complaints at the CTA. Alghabra said that will make them more likely to settle. He said they’re also streamlining the process so more complaints can be dealt with more quickly.
“It’s in the airlines’ vested interest that they deal with them before they go to the CTA,” he said. “We’re improving the efficiency of the process at the CTA, so when the CTA receives a complaint, they can process them much faster.”
The government is allowing the CTA to levy higher fines on airlines who flout the rules, raising the maximum fine from $25,000 to $250,000.
Jeff Morrison, president of the National Airlines Council of Canada, said the new legislation puts all the onus on airlines, even though airports, security agents and air traffic control operators are part of the system.
“Airlines are being forced to continue shouldering sole responsibility for all organizations in the overall system, over which they have no control,” he said. “We call on the federal government to work with us to create a stronger, more competitive air travel system for all passengers, rather than continue to wrongly single out one entity in the air travel chain.”
Duncan Dee, a former airline executive, said the government’s response is a knee-jerk reaction to last year’s travel problems that doesn’t address the root causes.
“What we’re seeing now is the product of that panic where government is sort of lashing out at airlines with a punitive regime that really does nothing to address the underlying causes of these disruptions,” he said.
Duncan agrees with Morrison that security screening, airports and air traffic control all have a big role to play in delays that are being ignored. He said the government should be looking to invest in airport improvements like the United States is doing.
The federal government rents airport land to local authorities. That rent was reduced during the pandemic, but Dee said it is still a substantial cost that could be going into improving airports instead.
They've ignored the views and recommendations of Canada's leading consumer advocates on air passenger rights.
NDP MP Taylor Bachrach
“We’re dealing with an aging system that doesn’t have government support for infrastructure because of the user-pay model that we’ve got in this country.”
Dee said the new rules will just drive the cost higher for passengers, because airlines will pass them on with higher ticket prices.
NDP MP Taylor Bachrach said the government is creating more bureaucracy when it could be following Europe’s model, which puts the onus on airlines to prove they weren’t responsible for delays and is more streamlined.
“The Liberals have chosen to double down on an approach that’s complex, bureaucratic and expensive,” he said.
Bachrach said the government largely ignored the Parliamentary committee that studied this issue and many consumer advocates who called for change.
“They’ve ignored the views and recommendations of Canada’s leading consumer advocates on air passenger rights, and he’s put us in a position where we’re likely to see more air passengers sleeping on airport floors.”
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