Canadians whose travel plans have been derailed by flight delays or cancellations say they are losing patience with the agency responsible for enforcing compensation rules.
The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), a quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator tasked with resolving disputes between airlines and customers, has dealt with a backlog of air passenger complaints since new regulations were put in place in 2019 which require an airline to compensate passengers when a flight is delayed or canceled for a reason that is within the airline’s control.
But that backlog has increased in recent months as a busy summer travel season has resulted in a growing number of customers who claim airlines are skirting federal compensation rules.
- Have you filed an airline complaint with the CTA and received no response? Tell us in an email to ask@cbc.ca.
The CTA said the backlog of complaints has increased to 18,200 following an increase in new complaints filed in recent months. The agency said 7,500 new complaints were filed between April and July this year, more than half the number of complaints it received all of last year.
“The CTA continues to process air passenger complaints as expeditiously as possible, based on their merit, impartially and rigorously,” the agency said in a statement.
But those who have recently filed new complaints could face a long wait for a response from the agency.
This chart shows the compensation that air travelers may be entitled to depending on the length of their flight delay. (CBC)
Michelle Jacobs waited almost a year before receiving a response from the CTA, and when she did it was only to confirm that she was filing on behalf of her two children. She filed a complaint in August 2021 after Air Canada canceled the family’s flight from Deer Lake, NL, to Toronto due to staffing issues.
“It’s frustrating,” he said of the CTA process, “I mean there are laws in place for this kind of thing and it feels like they’re really holding you back to see if you get away.”
Jacobs said she had considered dropping her CTA complaint, but after the agency contacted her last week, she now has some hope that an investigation into the case is proceeding.
The passenger is considering going to court
Kevin Smith, who has been fighting Flair Airlines for compensation since an initial flight from Vancouver to Ottawa on New Year’s Eve was canceled and rebooked the next day, says he is running out of patience with the CTA.
Smith said she filed a complaint with the agency in early February, but has yet to hear back.
While he’s frustrated that Flair continues to deny him what he said would be fair compensation, he said the CTA not responding “makes everything worse.”
“You can’t rely on enforcement, the laws are basically meaningless and it’s like the wild, wild west,” he said.
The Canadian Transportation Agency has a case tracker to allow passengers to monitor their complaints. Due to a current delay, the site only states that the agency will process a complaint as soon as possible. (Submitted by Kevin Smith)
Instead of waiting for the CTA to respond, Smith said he’s now considering taking Flair to small claims court, something Gabor Lukacs, founder and president of Air Passengers Rights Canada, has begun recommending to passengers who take contact with him
“A judge may or may not agree with them, but they will get a fair and impartial hearing, which is much more than they can expect from the agency,” Lukacs said.
While the CTA said it has been able to process complaints more quickly in recent years, it is currently facing a staff shortage and is trying to hire more facilitators who can help resolve complaints. The government has allocated funds to the CTA in recent years in an effort to address the backlog, including $11 million in the April budget.
When asked by CBC, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra would not say whether the government is willing to do more to ensure the CTA can deal with the backlog, instead saying airlines must comply with the regulations.
“Travellers also have rights to refunds and these must be respected,” Alghabra said in an emailed statement.
But Conservative transportation critic Melissa Lantsman said air passenger protections must be strengthened because Canadians are currently bearing the brunt of a weak system.
“Whether it’s the CTA, whether it’s the government, whether it’s the airline, there’s a complete abdication of responsibility,” Lantsman said.
NDP transportation critic Taylor Bachrach agreed that regulations and enforcement need to be strengthened and argued that the fact that there are so many complaints in the first place is indicative that airlines feel they can get away with breaking the rules
“The biggest problem is that the airlines are making a mockery of these air passenger protection regulations,” he said.
Both Lantsman and Barchrach said the government needs to provide the agency with the resources it needs to ensure passengers are compensated, but Lukacs said the CTA also needs to step up enforcement by issuing more fines when an airline defaults the rules
Passenger rights lawyer Gabor Lukacs is questioning the Transport Canada Agency’s enforcement practices, saying the agency should issue more fines when an airline violates air passenger protection rules. (CBC)
Under CTA regulations, airlines could face up to $25,000 per incident each time they violate air passenger protection regulations, something Lukacs said the agency doesn’t use often enough.
“If airlines knew they would face heavy fines for every violation, they wouldn’t go so far,” he said.
The CTA recently announced new regulations that would require airlines to provide compensation or rebooking even if a delay or cancellation is outside of their control. Lukacs said the new regulations, which will take effect on September 8, could worsen the backlog.