Three years after the new rules went into effect, the Canadian regulatory body that oversees Airlines did not issue any fines in relation to the passenger’s claim for flight delay and cancel.
The lack of action shows the reluctance of Canadian Transport Authority (CTA) exercises its powers on behalf of consumers, said Gabor Lukacs, chair of the advocacy group for Air Passenger Rights.
The absence of fines so far comes despite numerous complaints from travelers both officially and via social media, who say their claims have been denied after airlines do not cancel or postpone their trip in the context Airport chaos in the past few months.
“That’s really where the concern lies – what allows airlines to behave this way,” Lukacs said.
The country’s passenger rights regulations require airlines to pay up to $1,000 for cancellations or substantial delays resulting from reasons within the carrier’s control when notice arrives. 14 days or less before departure date.
But airlines including Air Canada and WestJet have declined the payments citing a lack of crew, citing safety issues as the reason the airline is exempt from compensation.
The CTA’s position is that staff shortages are often within the airline’s control and will therefore result in compensation.
“If the crew shortage is due to the actions or inactions of the carrier, such disruption will be deemed to be within the control of the carrier for purposes of the APPR (Protection Regulations). air passengers). Therefore, a disruption caused by a crew shortage should not be considered ‘mandatory for safety purposes’ when the carrier itself has caused a safety problem as a result of their own actions”. the agency said in an email.
Customers whose claims are denied by the airline can file a complaint with the regulator, but the backlog runs to 15,300, with the time between initial submission and final judgment. take up to a year.
Separate from the complaint process, federal law gives the agency’s enforcement officers the power to investigate companies and individuals they believe have violated the law, allowing the agency to request documents, search grounds and issue a fine of up to $25,000. So far, fines have been imposed for violations such as posting unclear terms or conditions, failing to explain why a flight was delayed, and not having a license for a charter flight.
The agency’s list of enforcement actions does not include any fines for carriers for compensating customers for flight disruptions.
Air Canada passenger Brittany Noppe was scheduled to fly with her partner on June 9 from Ottawa to Toronto and then to the UK, but the original flight was delayed by more than three hours. When the couple arrived at Toronto’s Pearson airport, their plane to Manchester had taken off, forcing the couple to book a hotel for $589 and book a new ticket to London’s Heathrow airport the next night for the next night’s price. $2,260, she said.
“When I submitted a claim for the delay and was reimbursed for the cost, both were denied as it was a ‘safety issue’ and I was provided with an e-coupon worth the cost. $300 as a ‘gesture of goodwill.’ I asked for my complaint to be reported and appealed, but they have not contacted me back for more than 30 days,” Noppe said in an email.
Since the Airline Passenger Protection Regulation went into effect in mid-2019, officers have not issued a fine against an airline over $20,000.
The Transportation Authority issued 11 penalties amounting to $253,975 in the financial year ended March 31. But the majority — $210,000 of that total — was in the form of fines for two rail lines. Canada’s main. The penalties for the airlines cover most of the remaining $44,000.
Air Canada’s pre-pandemic annual revenue was $19.13 billion. WestJet’s annual revenue for 2018, the last fiscal year before Onex Corp. buy this airline, is $4.73 billion.
“Let’s say I’m selling fake watches, and my cost is $10. I’m selling for $100, so profit is $90 on each. Then the punishment has to be to the point where it’s not worth it for me to commit the illegal act,” Lukacs said.
“Otherwise, it’s just another cost of doing business.”
In its 2020-21 annual report, the transport authority recommended that the government increase the fines to $250,000 for companies from the current $25,000, which is “outdated compared with the previous year’s regulations.” 1996″, the document states.
The agency also said it lacked the power to address day-to-day violations, calling for an amendment to allow officials to issue multiple notices of violations.
“This will act as a deterrent to ongoing non-compliance and ensure service providers are addressing issues quickly,” the report said.
Lukacs considers the call for a 10-fold increase in the fine ceiling to be “smoke and mirror,” noting that the agency has yet to issue fines against airlines that reach the current limit of $25,000 in three years. via.
As for claims filed by individuals, the agency said it aims to “resolve the matter expeditiously and informally through facilitation or mediation,” with 97 % of cases solved that way.
“If facilitation or mediation is unsuccessful, the complaint may, at the request of the passenger, then be brought to trial, a court-like process, where a decision will be made. based on the elements of evidence submitted.”
© 2022 Canadian Press
