Federal government announces $75.9 million to tackle air passenger complaints backlog | CBC News

The Liberal government announced $75.9 million in additional funding over three years to help tackle the growing backlog of passenger complaints that continue to pile up as the airline industry builds back from the pandemic. 

Canadian Transport Authority (CTA) officials told a parliamentary committee in November that the backlog of complaints related to delayed, cancelled flights or lost luggage had ballooned to more than 30,000 — up from 18,000 the previous summer.

Since this past holiday season’s travel chaos, the CTA — the agency tasked with enforcing rules requiring airlines to compensate passengers when a flight is delayed or cancelled for reasons within the airline’s control — has received more than 10,000 additional complaints.

“Travellers have rights, and these rights must be respected by airlines,” said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra in a statement Tuesday. 

“Today’s announcement helps give the agency more resources to deal with complaints and ensure the rules are respected,” he said. 

In a statement, the federal government explained that the new funding will allow the agency to hire more employees to deal with the backlog of complaints. 

The federal government said it is also working on “significant reforms to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations,” which it says will “ensure passenger rights are even more protected” going forward. 

Growing dissatisfaction, ballooning complaints

CBC News reported Saturday that internal surveys conducted by the CTA show a growing level of dissatisfaction with the time it takes to resolve complaints.

Since rules governing passenger rights came into force in 2019, the agency has been flooded with thousands of complaints from passengers who claim airlines have denied them compensation.

Through an access to information request, CBC News obtained CTA client satisfaction surveys showing that in 2019, 25 per cent of passengers were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the time it took for the agency to process their complaint. That number jumped to 71 per cent in the 2022 survey.

Roughly 20 per cent of respondents to the three surveys between 2019 and 2021 said they were dissatisfied with the quality of service they received from the agency. Seventy-two per cent of respondents told the 2021 survey they had a good experience overall with the agency.

But the lengthy wait times appear to be having an impact on those favourable reviews. Just over half —  53 per cent — told the 2022 survey they weren’t happy with their overall experience.

In January, Alghabra told CBC Radio’s The House that the federal government is strengthening the rules so that complaints against airlines are settled before reaching the CTA.

“Last summer and this winter, we’ve seen certain examples where passengers felt they were not communicated with, their rights were not upheld,” he told host Catherine Cullen. “So we need to strengthen the rules.”

Alghabra didn’t go into detail about the measures he’ll be looking at. He did say he would like to see more responsibility placed on airlines to compensate passengers before they file complaints.

In the statement on Tuesday, the federal government reaffirmed the commitment to strengthening the rules but did not provide any details of what that strengthening will look like.