Air passengers losing patience with enforcement agency as backlog of complaints balloons

Canadians whose travel plans have been derailed by flight delays or cancellations say they're losing patience with the agency responsible for enforcing compensation rules.

The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) — a quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator tasked with settling disputes between airlines and customers — has been dealing with a backlog of air passenger complaints since new regulations came into place in 2019 that require an airline to compensate passengers when a flight is delayed or cancelled for a reason that is within the airline's control.

But that backlog has spiked in the last few months as a hectic summer travel season has resulted in an increasing number of customers claiming airlines are skirting federal compensation rules.

The CTA said the backlog of complaints has risen to 18,200 after a spike in new grievances filed in recent months. The agency said 7,500 new complaints were filed between April and July this year, more than half of the amount of complaints it received all of last year.

"The CTA continues to process air passenger complaints as quickly as possible, based on their merit, impartially and in a rigorous manner," the agency said in a statement.

But those who have recently filed new complaints could be in for a long wait to get a response from the agency.

Michelle Jacobs waited nearly a year before hearing back from the CTA, and when she did it was only to confirm that she was filing on behalf of her two children. She filed a complaint in August 2021 after Air Canada cancelled the family's flight from Deer Lake, N.L., to Toronto citing staffing issues.

"It's frustrating," she said of the CTA process, "I mean there are laws put in place for this type of stuff and it seems that they're just really holding you off to see if you'll just go away." 

Jacobs said she had considered giving up her CTA complaint, but after she was contacted last week by the agency she now has a sliver of hope that an investigation of the case is proceeding.

Kevin Smith, who has been fighting Flair Airlines for compensation since an initial flight from Vancouver to Ottawa on New Years Eve was cancelled and rebooked the next day, says he's running out of patience with the CTA.

Smith said he filed a complaint with the agency in early February but has not yet received a response.

While he's frustrated with Flair continuing to deny him what he said would be fair compensation, he said the CTA not responding "makes everything worse."

"You can't rely on the enforcement, the laws are basically meaningless and it's kind of like the wild, wild west," he said.

Rather than waiting for the CTA to respond, Smith said he is now considering taking Flair to small claims court, something Gabor Lukacs, founder and president of Air Passengers Rights Canada, has started recommending to passengers who contact him.