Less than a month ago, on 31AUG, Open Jaw reported that the backlog of air passenger complaints against airlines awaiting resolution by the Canadian Transportation Agency had reached another high of 55,000.
Now, it's hit a new peak: 57,000, according to the Canadian Press, which says that's an average of more than 3,000 complaints per month - 100 per day! - piling up over the last year.
The current number of consumer air complaints waiting to be processed, it says, is now over three times the total from SEP, 2022.
The CTA's backlog seems ever-increasing, even as the air industry claims to be returning to pre-pandemic levels of service. It appears air travellers do not agree.
Furthermore, the backlog continues to spike despite, as Open Jaw has reported, at least two big funding increases in the tens of millions of dollars to the CTA designed specifically to help the agency process and resolve the complaints.
News about a new record high number of passenger complaints waiting to be addressed also comes a month after the CTA announced it had engaged the National Research Council's Data Analytics Centre to develop new digital tools to help clear the complaints processing backlog.
As Open Jaw reported, the new AI tool was intended to help the CTA speed up the first step in the complaint resoution process: confirming that the documentation for proving proof of purchase and proof that the consumer attempted to resolve the issue first directly with the airline - were both 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."
However, as Open Jaw asked in AUG: 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?
Open Jaw followed up with both the CTA and the NRC, asking for more information, and was told in a reply:
“The time to complete the review of incoming complaint documentation has been reduced by half, from 10 to 30 minutes when done manually to 5 to 15 minutes, and with greater than 90% accuracy,” says Michelle Greenshields, Director General of the Dispute Resolution Branch at the Canadian Transportation Agency.
Furthermore, the NRC's email added, "The knowledge and positive experience gained through this project has helped the CTA implement improvements and digitize the complaint intake form on its website.
"The CTA expects to find more opportunities for efficiencies by leveraging technology and data as it moves toward a simpler, clearer, faster and more cost-effective process that will ensure timely complaint resolution and access to justice for Canadians."
Neither agency replied to Open Jaw's inquiry about the cost of the creation or the implementation of the tool, which it said took 8 weeks from conception to delivery.
However, it seems clear that even halving the amount of time it takes the CTA to complete the first phase of complaint processing isn't nearly enough to stem the tide of growing consumer complaints against the air industry.
