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Air Canada is test-flying a new dispute resolution process to address passenger complaints.
The airline will ask 500 randomly selected passengers who have claims pending with the Canadian Transport Agency’s (CTA) dispute process if they would voluntarily transfer their claim to a third-party arbitrator.
The goal of the pilot program is to resolve customer grievances in a way that is “faster, efficient, but most importantly fair and equitable,” said Air Canada’s chief legal officer, Marc Barbeau.
The CTA has a backlog of about 95,000 complaints — an amount that’s ballooned from 42,000 in 2023 when extra funding was announced to help clear the queue. Analysis has shown that the complaint process can stretch over two to three years.
The pilot project is funded by Air Canada, though the company said Transport Canada and the Canadian Transportation Agency were consulted about the design of the program.
The test arbitration process will be run by a subsidiary of U.K.-based CDRL Group — a non-profit that provides dispute resolution services in the U.K. and Europe, where Barbeau says this kind of process is more common.
The hope is to “explore a solution that … has yielded good results elsewhere, and that we think can yield some good results in Canada,” Barbeau said.
To speed up long compensation claim wait times, Air Canada is now testing a system using a third-party arbitrator to settle each case within 90 days. But some critics worry the arbitrator will too often rule in favor of the airline.
Under the test program, Air Canada says a decision on each case will be made within 90 days of receiving all information from the airline and the customer.
The decision would be binding for Air Canada, but not for consumers — during the pilot, they can decline the arbitrator’s results if they’re not happy and proceed with the usual CTA process instead without losing their place in the queue, the CTA told CBC News in an email.
Will it help?
Airline passenger Andrew Giblon says a better system is needed — he filed a claim related to an issue with Air Canada two months ago and said he’s heard nothing since then.
“That backlog of … cases is real. And I don’t think that they’re taking care of it very well,” Giblon told CBC News.
But he’s not sure the pilot project will do much to help — especially since the arbitrator has poor reviews on consumer review site Trustpilot.
“In principle, it’s a great idea. But in practice, it has to be done by a neutral body that’s accepted by both sides. And from what I’ve read, it’s accepted by Air Canada, but it’s not accepted by the public,” Giblon said.
Ian Jack, a spokesperson for the Canadian Automobile Association which offers travel services including flight booking, says caution is needed to make sure the old system isn’t replaced with a new one with just as many problems. He says if airlines themselves were going to hire arbitrators as a permanent part of the system, oversight would be needed to make sure the airlines don’t end up winning the majority of the cases.
“We don’t want the fox in charge of the chicken coop here. If the carriers are going to pay for your third party adjudication as a consumer, the government needs to make sure that the system is honest and fair and consumers have a fair shot at winning,” Jack said.
He adds consumers in Europe also sometimes sell their claims to competing companies, which is “unacceptable” and needs to be avoided here.
Whether a government body or third-party ends up in charge of the complaints process, Jack says data showing how often the airlines win versus how often customers win should be made public.
“That would be the only way that anybody in the public could have confidence that the system is working properly,” Jack said.
WestJet denied a passenger compensation after citing “safety” as the reason for cancelling his flight. But records show the airline moved the plane to another route just eight minutes before the cancellation announcement. Now, the passenger is taking WestJet to court.
Under the current complaints system, about 75 per cent of decisions are in favour of Air Canada, according to the company.
Still, Karl Moore, an airline expert and associate professor at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, says the program is a “good idea” by Air Canada that shows its trying to improve the complaints process for consumers.
He says the fact that the CTA is aware of the program gives him a “greater sense of confidence” that the pilot could lead to change.
The process also won’t require customers to sign non-disclosure agreements — different from the regulator’s process which bars customers and airlines from publicly disclosing the outcome of complaints on matters ranging from lost baggage to compensation for a cancelled flight unless both parties agree to waive confidentiality. Moore says that change could enhance transparency, as it would allow consumers to speak out if they’re not satisfied with the results of the pilot.
Air Canada expects the pilot project to wrap some time in the summer. After that, Barbeau says the airline will share its findings from the pilot with the government and consult on possible next steps.
