Canada’s top court is hearing a case about an oh-so-common travel nightmare: flight cancellations.
What happened: Members of the airline industry are appealing Canada’s air passenger protection rules in the Supreme Court, arguing that the feds don’t have the right to impose rules on foreign carriers and that compensation amounts go beyond passengers’ losses.
Catch-up: The rules force airlines to compensate passengers up to $1,000 for some flight delays, cancellations, and lost baggage, among other things, and have been significantly toughened up in recent years to protect Canadian travellers amid a surge in delays and lost luggage.
- In July 2023, during peak travel season, less than 52% of Air Canada flights were on time, while only 62% of WestJet’s met the mark, far below the industry goal of 80%.
- Airlines were accused of overbooking flights to meet post-pandemic travel demand and have since seen profits take off (pun intended) in spite of the rise in disruptions.
Why it matters: Without these rules in place, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for travellers to be compensated when airlines drop the ball. That’s a particularly big problem as a shortage of pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers only exacerbate the problem.
Yes, but: While the rules are pretty generous when it comes to compensation, people often have a hard time actually getting paid. The Canadian Transportation Agency, the body that deals with passenger complaints, currently has a backlog of about 70,000 files.—LA