Air Canada defying federal passenger protection regulations: consumer advocate

Experts suggest that the company potentially violated federal regulations for financial gain by actively failing to comply with CTA guidelines.

When David Britton’s family flight from Naples, Italy to Kelowna, B.C. was cancelled due to the Air Canada labour stoppage, the father of two young boys knew that the country’s largest airline was federally regulated to book him on the next available flight home. Even if it was with a competitor.

“Every step of the way, instead of trying to provide a solution, it was ‘You can have a refund, please take a refund.’ We knew it was a way for (Air Canada) to absolve themselves of their responsibility,” said Britton.

According to the Canadian Transportation Agency’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, if an airline can’t rebook you on their airline following a cancellation, a customer may choose a reservation for the next available flight that is operated by “any carrier.”

The Britton family found the next available flight online, four tickets on a United Airlines flight from Naples that would eventually get them home.

When they presented the flight as an option to an agent, the family of four were told that Air Canada couldn’t find the United Airlines tickets on their system.

“They said they didn’t have access to it, so we were constantly up against that,” said Britton.

Stuck in Lisbon, Portugal, Kyla Kumar also reached out to CTV News after Air Canada refused to rebook her family on a Delta Airlines flight home.

“A Delta employee even told mem ‘You know Air Canada has to book you on our flight if we’re the next available.’ But the Air Canada agent very clearly refused to book us on another carrier,” said Kumar.

CTV News has also received an audio recording of an Air Canada agent allegedly refusing to rebook a customer because there was only a business class seat available.

On the recording, you hear a customer say, “You are required to (book) me in that space.” The agent on the line responds, saying, “That is something you can take up with customer relations to see why that is not being offered, because on our end we have to maintain the same cabin.”

One passenger protection advocate believes that Air Canada is knowingly breaking federal regulations for financial gain.

“If business class is the only available option on the next available flight, they have to rebook you on that,” Air Passenger Rights President Gabor Lukacs told CTV News.

Lukacs even believes there is “significant grounds” to lay criminal charges.

“Having a policy in practice and instructing agents to tell passengers ‘We don’t do it’ is a different matter. That is a deliberate, calculated attempt to skirt around the law by Air Canada,” claimed Lukacs.

Aviation analyst John Gradek shares that clearly ignoring the country’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) is nothing new for Air Canada.

“Someone should be reaching out to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) and say ‘Okay guys, how are you going to handle this one?’” suggested Gradek.

That’s exactly what CTV National News has done in an email this week, asking the CTA what they’re doing to hold Air Canada responsible for breaking federal passenger protection regulations.

“The CTA continually monitors regulated entities for non-compliance using a variety of informal and formal enforcement measures,” they said. “With respect to the Air Canada labour dispute disruptions specifically, our enforcement team is actively looking into the situation and will take appropriate action as necessary.”

However, advocates say that historically, CTA penalties against Canadian airlines amount to little more than a slap on the wrist.

“The amount of suffering Air Canada has caused — not by the strike, but how it was mishandling passengers — is immense,” said Lukacs.

Now home in Kelowna following a 24-hour flight with two layovers, Britton says there were other options that would have got his family home sooner and with significantly less headache.

“The CTA is supposed to be the regulatory body that protects Canadian citizens, and again and again, these things happen, and there’s been no improvements,” said Britton.

Before publishing this story, CTV News gave Air Canada multiple days to respond to our questions. They’ve yet to return our email.