Promised since 2023, when will Canada's new air passenger rights be cleared for takeoff?

Updates to the air passenger bill of rights appear stuck on the tarmac more than two years after the federal government promised changes — something that may come as unwelcome news for Canadian air travellers facing their own delays.

After promising to improve the air passenger protection regulations (APPR) as part of the 2023 budget, the government still hasn't finalized the new changes — and it's not clear when the updated regulations will be cleared for takeoff.

In response to the budget, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) — the independent regulator responsible for enforcing the APPR — proposed a new set of regulations a year ago and wrapped up consultations on those proposals in March.

Before the regulations come into force, the CTA needs to present them to cabinet for approval.

When asked earlier this month, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon didn't say if the updated proposals are still sitting with the agency or have been passed to cabinet — but he did express frustration with how the system is currently operating.

"It is a state of affairs that I'm not happy with and we want to make it better for Canadians," he told reporters during a news conference.

CBC News has asked MacKinnon's office for clarification on whether the regulations are still with the CTA or have landed with cabinet.

The first iteration of the APPR came into force in 2019 and requires airlines to compensate passengers for delays or cancellations that are within their control.

But the CTA has been grappling with a mountain of complaints from passengers who have accused airlines of unfairly denying them compensation. There are 88,000 complaints currently backlogged with the agency.

Gerald Van De Ven of Qualicum Beach, B.C., has been waiting for the CTA to handle his complaint since April 2023.

"There's no way to get answers. I've sent emails and you just get a one-line response: 'You're still in the queue.' It's been really, really frustrating. I've never dealt with anything quite like this," he told CBC News.

"It doesn't give me a lot of faith in the systems that we have in place that they're actually there to help us."

Van De Ven's return flight from a family trip a few years ago was cancelled and rescheduled to the next day. He and his family had to bear the extra costs of another night stay at a hotel and meals for the day.

WestJet denied his compensation claim, even though Van De Ven said the pilot on the make-up flight indicated that the cancellation was "100 per cent the airline's fault." He took the complaint to the CTA and is still waiting for a decision.