Consumer advocates say proposed changes to Canada’s passenger rights charter will perpetuate loopholes that allow airlines to forego compensating travellers whose flights are disrupted.
Ottawa is proposing new rules surrounding airlines’ obligations when a flight is delayed or cancelled by designating certain factors outside a carrier’s control, such as weather that could affect flight safety, as “exceptional circumstances.”
Under the amended rules, airlines are still generally not required to provide compensation for inconveniences to passengers in situations involving such factors, though there are some exceptions.
But Air Passenger Rights advocacy group president Gabor Lukacs calls the weekend announcement of the proposal “deceptive” and says that Transport Canada is actually “preserving the status quo.”
He says that under the newly outlined rules, which are now open to a 75-day feedback period, around half of flight delays and more than two-thirds of cancellations would still not qualify for compensation.
The amendments to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations would require carriers to provide meals to passengers whose flights are delayed at least two hours, along with overnight accommodation if necessary, even when caused by an exceptional circumstance.