Facing a record high backlog of air customer complaints against airlines, the Canadian Transportation Agency asked the National Research Council's Data Analytics Centre to develop new digital tools to help clear the complaints processing backlog.
The news comes days after Open Jaw reported that the number of backlogged complaints against airlines waiting for resolution at the CTA now exceeds 55,000.
Using the NRC's new automated solution that uses artificial intelligence (AI), the CTA says that it has been able to reduce the time it takes to initially review complaints.
“Part of the problem,” explained Rachael Donovan, Manager of Compliance Strategy and Analysis at the CTA in a release, “is that the first part of that process was largely manual work.”
She pointed out that, before a complaint can be placed in the hands of a CTA staff member for review and resolution, 2 things are needed. There must be
- proof of purchase, meaning a ticket number or itinerary number, and
- proof of correspondence—evidence that the passenger has attempted to resolve the complaint with the airline.
For the CTA, the first step in the complaints resolution process is to confirm that the documentation for both was filed by the consumer. Done manually, the CTA says, this check can be difficult and often require review of the original file multiple times.
The new digital solution involves using AI to comb through those documents, determine proof of submission and catalogue the information so it can be easily found.
The CTA describes it as "the difference between flipping through an entire book and having someone tell you that what you're looking for is on page 20."
But just how much time will the CTA save - and how does that translate into complaints resolved? And how much is the new tool costing, following two big hikes in CTA funding from the government to hire more staff and reduce a backlog that instead keeps growing?
Open Jaw followed up with both the CTA and the NRC, asking for more information about the AI's impact and costs, including
- how much time does the AI automation speed the CTA complaint processing backlog?
- based on the new automation, how soon will the backlog be cleared? and
- what was the cost of developing and implementing the AI tool for the CTA?
As of press time 31AUG, Open Jaw had not received a reply from either federal agency.
