Backlog of air passenger complaints still rising but may have peaked, enforcement agency says | 24CA News

The backlog of complaints to the Canadian Transportation Agency associated to delayed or cancelled flights or misplaced baggage has ballooned to greater than 30,000 — up from 18,000 this summer time — however the quantity might have peaked.

The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) — a quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator tasked with settling disputes between airways and prospects — has been coping with an enormous quantity of air passenger complaints since new rules got here into power in 2019 that require an airline to compensate passengers when a flight is delayed or cancelled for a motive that’s inside the airline’s management.

The variety of complaints started to spike earlier this 12 months as a busy summer time journey season — pushed partly by an increase in air journey following the pandemic droop — resulted in an rising variety of prospects claiming airways had been skirting federal compensation guidelines.

Michelle Greenshields, head of the dispute decision department on the CTA, informed a committee of MPs on Monday that the variety of complaints might have peaked.

“We’ve witnessed a big jump in complaints which has only recently started to slow down,” Greenshilds informed the House of Commons transport committee.

Last week, the CTA informed CBC News that the company has acquired greater than 19,000 complaints since April. That’s over 7,000 greater than the roughly 12,000 complaints the company acquired in all of final 12 months.

Speaking at a press convention on Monday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra mentioned some air passengers needed to cope with “unacceptable situations” in the course of the summer time. He mentioned the federal government is working with the CTA to deal with the “unprecedented” backlog.

“I will acknowledge that this is a lot more than any of us had ever seen before,” he mentioned.

The authorities has allotted funding to the CTA in recent times — together with $11 million in April’s finances — to deal with the backlog.

But Alghabra mentioned the federal government wants to start out trying past throwing cash on the downside.

“We’re looking at not only what other resources [we can provide] but are there processes that we can streamline to make it more efficient so it takes less time,” he mentioned.

Greenshields informed the transport committee it may possibly take as much as 18 months to course of a grievance. She mentioned CTA frequently seems to be for methods to course of complaints extra shortly — resembling “batching” complaints from the identical flight to resolve a number of points without delay.

The committee, which is finding out methods to enhance protections for air passengers, additionally heard from Jeff Morrison, president of the National Airlines Council of Canada.

Morrison argued that accountability within the air journey business ought to be shared in order that duty is not laid solely on airways.

“Airlines don’t operate in isolation,” Morrison informed the committee, including air carriers depend on airports and navigation service suppliers to make sure passengers arrive on time.

Morrison mentioned any enhancements to air passenger protections ought to deal with enhancing service requirements throughout the business.