The backlog of air complaints at the Canadian Transportation Agency is up to 38,000, a new record, the Senate transport committee was told last night. The Agency has calculated it takes a year to process 15,000 complaints..“The Canadian Transportation Agency has reported about a 38,000 complaint backlog that they are working through,” testified Craig Hutton, associate assistant deputy transport minister. “They are saying 97% of complaints are resolved by facilitation.”.Complaints typically involve travellers’ claims for compensation under Air Passenger Protection Regulations. The rules set a compensation schedule ranging from $400 for flight delays over three hours to $900 for denial of boarding, $2100 for lost or damaged luggage and punitive fines of $25,000 per passenger. The maximum penalty has never been imposed..“We already have legislation and regulation put into place in 2019 and the problem is enforcement,” said Senator Leo Housakos (Que.), chair of the transport committee. “From what I understand, when you have thousands of complaints that aren’t being dealt with in a timely fashion it’s not the fault of the airlines, it’s not the fault of the airport, it’s the fault of the government, and that’s why we know there is a lot of frustration amongst the Canadian public.”.Transport Minister Omar Alghabra repeated an earlier promise to introduce a bill by June that would toughen regulations. “The idea here is not to just fix how complaints are being dealt with, it’s actually to reduce the number of complaints,” Alghabra said last night. “It’s to avoid these violations that are taking place. That is ultimately the best remedy to the system.”.Airline executives testifying at the committee did not disclose the number of complaints they received last year. The Transportation Agency estimates only 1 in 5,000 Canadians who suffer delayed flights, denial of boarding or lost luggage ever file a complaint..“The number we have found to be a reasonable approximation that we use for forecasting complaints into the future is roughly 1 in 5,000 passengers will issue a complaint,” Tom Oommen, director general of analysis at the Transportation Agency, testified last November 28 at the Commons transport committee..Michelle Greenshields, director of dispute resolution at the Agency, said staff process 15,000 complaints a year. “As air travel volumes have rebounded and the air industry has grappled with the speed of recovery, we have witnessed a big jump in complaints,” said Greenshields.
