Don’t Know, Don’t Tell: CTA Fails Over Travel Complaints

By Tom Korski, www.blacklocks.ca

The agency did not respond to Blacklock’s request for comment. In documents, staff acknowledged they hear only a fraction of actual passenger complaints in Canada.

Assessment calculated WestJet and Air Canada carry nearly 40 million passengers in a typical year. Some 12 million a year arrive more than fifteen minutes late at their destination: “Although air carriers do not publish data on the number of complaints they receive, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that for every complaint they receive, the air carriers receive around 50. Although there are significant differences between the two jurisdictions, applying the same ratio to Canada results in an estimate of approximately 40,000 complaints in 2010-11.”

The research continued, “Agency staff report that an Air Canada representative suggested the carrier received around 20,000 complaints annually but this anecdotal report is now dated and was for a single air carrier only. Lacking firm data, a range of between 20,000 and 50,000 annual air passenger complaints to Canadian airlines is not an unreasonable estimate.”

The agency received only 882 complaints from air passengers last year and 529 the year before, according to its Annual Report. “These represent only 2 one-thousands of one percent” of passengers who fly in Canada annually,” Assessment said.

The agency in additional documents noted Canada remains one of the few industrialized countries without a legislated Passenger Bill Of Rights. Nunez-Melo’s Bill C-459 would have mandated airlines to compensate customers up to $1,000 for flight cancellations or delays. MPs defeated the bill on a 149 to 134 vote on March 27, 2013.

“It’s incredible,” said Nunez-Melo, MP for Laval; “Passengers who try to assert their rights are dismissed. The airlines have the big stick. Every time I hear of a service issue with passengers, I remind people the House rejected this.”

Canadian Transportation Agency research noted most countries have legislated formal passenger rights legislation with minimum compensation for delays, flight cancellations and denial of boarding include Argentina; Brazil; Chile; China; and Colombia.  The European Union requires that carriers reimburse passengers for delays of five hours or more, regardless of the reason.

Other nations with passenger rights regulations are Iceland; India; Israel; Nigeria; Norway; Pakistan; Peru; The Philippines; Switzerland; Thailand; Turkey; Uruguay; Venezuela and the United States, where delays of more than four hours entitle passengers to 400% compensation to a maximum US$1,300.