Feds Say They're Looking At Strengthening Air Passenger Protection Rules After Flight Delays

The government is looking to strengthen air passenger protection rules after recent travel delays with airlines at Canadian airports and abroad, according to a federal minister.

In an interview with CBC Radio's The House that aired on Saturday, January 7, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra explained how he's working to ensure airlines uphold passenger rights and are held responsible for making mistakes.

"A lot of things that we saw last summer did not occur during the Christmas holidays," Alghabra said. "This time we didn't see the problems we saw at security screenings, we didn't see the problems we saw at CBSA, we didn't see the problems we saw at airports."

"We saw two extreme weather events that happened one after the other in British Columbia and in Ontario and Quebec and then we saw bad decisions were being made by Sunwing Airlines," he continued.

At airports in Canada at the end of December and the beginning of January, there were delays, flight cancellations and lost baggage.

Also, cancelled Sunwing flights during that time led to passengers being stranded abroad, including in Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The minister called what happened a "very terrible ordeal for many Canadians."

Alghabra said that his job is to make sure rules and regulations are in place to protect travellers' rights and safety while also ensuring airlines are held responsible when they make mistakes.

"It's clear that there is an opportunity for us to strengthen the rules to have further clarification, to have more information being shared by operators and airports, to have more tools that airports need," he continued.

He also wants to help "ensure that the burden is on the airline, not the passenger, for upholding their rights."

So, Alghabra is looking at finding a way to make the process of dealing with complaints more efficient and faster, to provide resources so the CTA can deal with the backlog of complaints and to have a "better, stronger system for our passengers."

"Last summer and this winter, we've seen certain examples where passengers felt they were not communicated with, their rights were not upheld so we need to strengthen the rules," he said.

The Canadian Transportation Agency's (CTA) Air Passenger Protection Regulations outline that passengers who experience a problem with airlines can file a complaint with them if the airline doesn't resolve the situation.

According to the CTA, there are different travel issues that the regulations cover including flight delays or cancellations, damaged or lost baggage, tarmac delays and more which could result in refunds and compensation.

In the CBC interview, Alghabra was also asked about the recent situation with Sunwing and when travellers should expect compensation.

"I expect things to be addressed and compensations to be doled out extremely quickly. People have already suffered, people were not communicated with," he said. "I hope [it takes] days, it's already been a week."

Sunwing's CEO has since apologized to travellers for "clear failures" that happened over the holidays in the "aftermath of severe weather disruptions."

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.