Court upholds all but one rule on airline compensation for passengers

The rules that bolster compensation for air passengers subjected to delayed flights and damaged luggage have been largely upheld in a Federal Court of Appeal ruling. The court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal that challenged the validity of the passenger bill of rights, with the exception of one regulation that applies to the temporary loss of baggage. Earlier this year, Air Canada and Porter Airlines along with 16 other appellants that include IATA brought the challenge to the passenger bill of rights to a Federal Court of Appeal panel. The airlines argued that the country’s passenger rights charter violates global standards and should be rendered invalid for international flights. This includes the most recent amendment made to the passenger protections that require airline compensation if they cannot provide a new reservation within 48 hours of a flight cancellation or “lengthy delay” for delays and cancellations outside of the airline’s control such as major weather events or a pandemic. The three-year-old federal regulations took on renewed relevance to thousands of Canadians in 2020 as pandemic lockdowns and border closures grounded fleets and prompted mass flight cancellations. A request from the airlines to suspend the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), initially launched by the airlines in 2019, was turned down by the Federal Court of appeal in 2020. <br/>