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While airlines and airports always strive to give guests the best experience on the ground and in the air, it is unavoidable that, on certain occasions, the product will fall short. For this reason, passengers are able to submit their complaints through dedicated channels in order to receive an explanation and, in some cases, compensation. In Canada, however, the current system is not working, with thousands of unaddressed complaints.
For this reason, the Canadian government has laid out an action plan for its plan to eliminate this considerable backlog, and ensure that its citizens are treated fairly and promptly when it comes to raising grievances with aviation companies. Let’s take a look at how this will work and what it will mean for passengers.
Time For Change
The Canadian government announced these plans as part of a wider ‘Spring Economic Update’ at the start of the month. It explains that, while “Canadians deserve fair treatment and a system they can trust when they travel by air, today, nearly 100,000 Air Passenger Protection complaints are sitting in backlog before the Canadian Transportation Agency.” With this number only continuing to grow, Canada is taking action on the matter.
It specifically plans to contract a third-party resolution service to work through and settle the backlog of complaints, with carriers obliged to “comply with decisions and resolve cases with their customers quickly” once a conclusion has been drawn. This, Daily Hive notes, could see Canadian flyers receive money in a more timely manner for complaints where financial compensation is required. Steven MacKinnon, Minister of Transport, said that:
“For too long, Canadians have been left waiting while complaints pile up and accountability falls short. That ends now. (…) Canadians deserve a system that works, and we are delivering it.”
Higher Fines Should Keep Airlines On The Straight & Narrow
The Canadian government hopes that these measures will help it to rebuild trust among passengers in the country’s airlines. These carriers will be kept in check and held accountable by increased fines. According to the Canadian government’s statement, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) will now be able to enforce fines of up to CA$1 million (US$734,525) “for systemic violations of the Air Passenger Protection Regulations.”
From the passenger side, the Canadian government has also pledged to “remove the obligation on passengers to maintain confidentiality” when filing complaints regarding aviation companies. This will reportedly help to improve transparency in the process, further protecting the consumer rights of Canadian air travelers. With more than 97,000 complaints currently sitting in the backlog, even small changes like this can make a big difference.
One of the challenging things as a passenger when something goes wrong at an airport or on a flight can be knowing what exactly your rights are, and how to go about ensuring that they are upheld. With this in mind, the Canadian government’s new regulatory regime will feature legislation that is easier to understand. It is this more effective system that, as previously noted, could result in passengers being compensated more quickly and fairly.
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An Ongoing Consultation Process
Politics and aviation are two sectors where, more than almost anywhere else, change rarely happens overnight. On this front, while the Canadian government has laid out a strong framework when it comes to protecting the consumer rights of its citizens, certain aspects of these new policies still need to be tied down. As such, the government notes that the new legislation will start to be implemented “in the coming weeks.”
This, it says, will help it to advance the changes that it is looking to enact through this regulatory overhaul. From a passenger perspective, citizens of Canada will also be able to “have their say through consultations as the regulatory process progresses,” which will ensure that their government delivers them a faster and fairer regime that honors their complaints with more dignity. This, the government says, is what its citizens deserve.
