Travellers look at departures by the WestJet gate as the airline's flight attendants strike outside at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Aug. 2.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
The thousands of travellers who had plans disrupted by the recent WestJet flight attendant strike have been offered refunds or rebookings. The airline says that in some cases, it will go beyond what is required under Canada’s air passenger protection regulations, and offer compensation for hotels and meals for stranded travellers.
While most passengers should have their situations settled quickly, anyone who feels the company didn’t live up to its obligations, and wants to file a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), will find themselves stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire.
With a backlog nearing 100,000 complaints, it can take more than two years for a complaint to be reviewed. Once the review begins, the average case takes 54 days to be resolved. Ottawa has been saying for years that it will reform the system, but just like being stranded at an airport after a cancelled flight, travellers face a long and uncertain wait.
The air passenger regulations came into force in 2019 with the goal of establishing clear and consistent airline obligations to passengers for flight delays, cancellations, overbookings, tarmac delays and lost or damaged baggage. However, the resulting system has been a source of frustration for passengers. The CTA has been overwhelmed by a mounting number of complaints, despite getting nearly $76-million in 2023 to clear the backlog.
In this year’s spring economic update, the federal government said it would hire a third-party dispute resolution organization to clear the backlog. This model, used in Britain and the EU, makes sense as it could clear complaints at a lower cost than the CTA, which is a quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator. The idea also is better than having airlines hire third-party arbitrators themselves, something that Air Canada has said it’s testing, but raises questions of conflicts of interest.
Passenger advocates, such as Ian Jack from the Canadian Automobile Association, say the backlog won’t be magically cleared by a third party unless the regulations themselves are simplified. As it stands, the rules have too many grey areas about which situations are deemed under airlines’ control, resulting in complex cases that take time to resolve.
Transportation Minister Steven MacKinnon says the government will clarify the rules, which would be welcome, but skepticism about the pace of change is understandable.
Proposed regulatory changes released in 2024 have yet to be implemented. Similarly, a 2023 Parliamentary order to charge airlines a fee to cover the mounting costs has been stalled amidst lobbying from the carriers.
Ottawa needs to act swiftly to simplify the rules. The EU’s model is worth looking at. For cancellations, EU passengers are entitled to a refund or rebooking, plus additional compensation, unless there are extraordinary circumstances, such as extreme weather, political instability or security risks. In Canada, a vaguely defined rule saying that disruptions due to “safety purposes” may be out of the airline’s control creates ambiguity and gives airlines an advantage over passengers, who lack technical information.
A properly designed system would incentivize airlines to do the right thing immediately, avoiding the need for customers to file complaints in the first place. Mr. MacKinnon has promised to raise the maximum fine that can be levied against airlines for repeat violations to $1-million, which could increase pressure on airlines to be proactive.
When things go wrong, passengers who feel they haven’t been treated properly deserve a reasonable process for having their situation reconsidered. Labour disruptions are messy, and efforts to help stranded travellers can go awry. After the Air Canada labour disruption last summer, the airline was fined $426,000 for multiple violations of air passenger protection regulations for not rebooking passengers or providing refunds for the unused portions of their tickets. The airline has said it will contest the penalty.
One of the best ways to improve customer service would be to boost competition. Canada’s airline industry is highly concentrated – at major airports, Air Canada and WestJet combined account for half to three quarters of all domestic passenger traffic. Measures to help new airlines become established could help to bring down costs and motivate airlines to improve customer service.
A more competitive airline industry with clearer consumer protection rules would go a long way in ensuring that Canadians’ travel plans aren’t grounded.