Regulator issued no fines over airlines' denying compensation for cancelled flights

Three years after new rules came into force, the regulator overseeing Canadian airlines has not issued any fines related to passenger compensation claims for flight delays and cancellations. The lack of action reveals a reluctance by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) to exercise its authority on consumers' behalf, says Air Passenger Rights advocacy group president Gabor Lukacs. The absence of fines so far comes despite a flood of complaints made by travellers both formally and through social media who say their claims for compensation were rejected after airlines cancelled or delayed their trips amid the airport chaos of the past few months. "That's really where the concern lies -- what enables airlines to behave this way," Lukacs said. The country's passenger rights charter mandates airlines to pay up to $1,000 in compensation for cancellations or significant delays that stem from reasons within the carrier's control when the notification comes 14 days or less before departure. But airlines including Air Canada and WestJet have denied payments on the basis of crew shortages, deeming the reason a safety issue that would make it exempt from compensation. The CTA stance is that a lack of staff typically falls within the airline's control and therefore should result in compensation. "If a crew shortage is due to the actions or inactions of the carrier, the disruption will be considered within the carrier's control for the purposes of the APPR (Air Passenger Protection Regulations). Therefore, a disruption caused by a crew shortage should not be considered 'required for safety purposes' when it is the carrier who caused the safety issue as a result of its own actions," the agency said in an email. Customers whose claims are rejected by an airline can file a complaint with the regulator, but the backlog tops 15,300, with the time between initial submission and final ruling taking as much as one year.<br/>