New rules to protect airline passengers now in effect

New regulations on refunds for air travellers who have their flights cancelled or delayed have arrived in Canada.

Airlines are now required to provide a full refund if passengers cannot be rebooked on another available flight within 48 hours. 

This is an amendment to the 2019 version of Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulation, which only forced airlines to provide compensation if the reason for the cancellation was within their control.

As of Sept.8, refunds are required even if a cancellation or delay is not the airline's fault, including things like poor weather conditions, mechanical issues, or labour disputes.

"If the flight disruption is outside airline control, and the airline can’t rebook you within 48 hours of your original departure, they have to offer you a refund, and the refund must be provided within 30 days," said Tom Oosmen of the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).
The change comes as the CTA faces a massive backlog of complaints from travellers.

"I think this was a definite gap that we saw because of the pandemic, and we are closing it now, so that makes our system complete and robust," said Oosmen.

"If you are faced with a cancellation or flight disruption, take notes on the incident and what you are told by the airline because you may need them afterwards."

Travellers at the Calgary International Airport welcomed news of the amendment to the Air Passenger Protection Regulation.

"I had an issue with one of the airlines," said Sanoop Dilip. "They cancelled one of my flights during the initial COVID-19 stuff, and instead of giving me my refund, they gave me some travel vouchers, but unfortunately, it's almost two years now, and I've been unable to use them.

"It's been really difficult to utilize what they provide as a trial voucher. So I think it's a great step by the government to provide this compensation right away instead of all these gimmicks."

Others say they've noticed some airlines doing what they can to avoid providing proper compensation.

"I know some people who had some pretty bad delays in the last couple of months, and I think they had to jump through some pretty bad loopholes. The airlines were trying to get out of paying them," said Murray Dunn.

"Something needs to be done to compensate them because it seemed quite unfair to pin [cancellations] on safety when it was clearly a staffing issue. I'm good with them trying to close those loopholes. I think they should."

Sylvie de Belleville, a lawyer with the advocacy group Option Consommateurs, says this is a positive development for customers, but there is still room for improvement. 

She wants to see rules that provide a reimbursement option if the passenger no longer needs a later flight within that 48-hour window.

“If you were travelling for a specific event, a friend's wedding, and the flight was booked for Friday and the wedding was for Saturday, and (your flight got cancelled and) you were rebooked to fly out on Sunday morning—in that situation not only did you use the flight, but you also lost the wedding! The flight would not be useful to you, and reimbursement is not mandatory.

"It leaves a gap where consumers could be left with a flight they don’t need and no answer in the regulations for such a situation."
The National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) says these new rules unfairly target the airlines.

"What these new expanded regulations are going to do is put airlines on the hook and be entirely responsible for any issue that is the cause of a disruption of a flight, whether it is in their control or not. That is a concern—not just because of the obvious lack of fairness," said Jeff Morrison, president and CEO of the NACC.

"At the end of the day, there are so many other organizations and entities involved in a flight—whether it be the customs and immigration officials, the security officials, the airport themselves, including the baggage carousels, the navigation people. Under these new regulations, there is no accountability for those bodies.

"If the whole point of these expanded regulations is to try to minimize flight disruptions, which of course is what we all want, the fact is that there is no service standards or accountability for those other entities, is going to be a big cause for concern."

Morrison adds that this amendment could also put financial pressure on airlines resulting in increased airfares.

In a statement provided to CTV News, a spokesperson for the Office of the Minister of Transport says "Passengers have rights, and they deserve to be respected. Our government was the first to put in place protections for travellers and ensure their rights are safeguarded throughout their travel journey.

"The new regulations, which amend Canada’s existing Air Passenger Protection Regulations, apply to flights that are cancelled, or where there is a lengthy delay, for reasons outside of an air carrier’s control, including major weather events or a pandemic, where it is not possible for the carrier to complete the passenger’s journey within a reasonable time. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a gap in Canada’s passenger protection regulations, with flights delayed or cancelled due to situations outside an airline’s control, like a global pandemic. These new regulations will help correct this gap."

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Leah Larocque.