On 20APR, as part of a larger budget bill, the federal government tabled new legislation that cracks down on airlines and closes loopholes in the current air passenger rights legislation.
With passenger complaint backlogs continuing to grow and ongoing travel chaos at airports across Canada, as Open Jaw has reported, the government has been saying since the winter that it would further tighten passenger rights protections. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra promised new laws by this spring even as the transport ministry padded the CTA's budget by tens of millions of dollars to hire new staff to process pax complaints and clear a backlog that had tripled in just a year to exceed 45,000 complaints.
As the Globe reports, new provisions in the bill increase penalties on airlines tenfold. Under the terms of the newly-tabled legislation, airlines can now be fined up to $250,000 for violations.
In addition, the proposed changes require airlines to put a process in place to deal with pax complaints within 30 days.
Quoting Sylvie De Bellefeuille, a lawyer with the advocacy group Option consommateurs, the National Post notes that the increased maximum fine, plus an "amendment placing the regulatory cost of complaints on carriers’ shoulders," should "incentivize carriers to brush up on their service and thus reduce the number of grievances against them."
Furthermore, as reported in the Globe, "The establishment of “complaint resolution officers” at the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) should expedite the process," according to De Bellefeuille.
The tabled changes also close a loophole that allowed airlines to avoid compensating passengers for delayed or cancelled flights if they can claim safety reasons. The new legislation drops the mention of a safety exception for compensation, aligning Canadian air passenger rights more with those in Europe.
Airlines would also have to compensate pax for delayed, not just lost, luggage, closing another loophole and thorn in the side of consumers.
The NDP's transport critic, MP Taylor Bachrach, says the new legislation does not go far enough. In a private member's bill he tabled in MAR, he called for higher airline penalties and stiff enforcement, including automatic compensation for any traveller whose flight was delayed excessively or cancelled. The newly-proposed amendments do not allow for automatic pax compensation.
“The fines in the legislation as it currently stands are insufficient to act as a deterrent," he is quoted in the Globe in MAR. "As long as the cost of following the rules is higher than the cost of breaking them, we’re going to see airlines operate outside the rules as a course of normal business."
On its part, the industry group representing four of Canada's biggest airlines says Ottawa should be focusing on airport upgrades, not penalizing airlines. Furthermore, the National Airlines Council of Canada says, increases in costs to airlines as a result of the new legislation could lead to increases in fares for all air travellers.
