Backlog of airline complaints balloons by 6,395 since December travel chaos: Canadian Transportation Agency
CTV
The fallout from the December travel chaos continues, as the backlog of complaints made to the Canadian Transportation Agency keeps growing. As of Jan. 31, there have been 6,395 new complaints made to the agency since Dec. 21.
The fallout from the December travel chaos continues, as the backlog of complaints made to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) keeps growing.
As of Jan. 31, there have been 6,395 new complaints made to the agency since Dec. 21. Of these complaints, 2,028 are related to Air Canada, 1,951 are related to WestJet and 761 are related to Sunwing, the CTA told CTV National News on Tuesday.
Under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, Canadians are entitled to receive up to $1,000 in compensation for delays and cancellations, depending on the size of the airline and the length of the delay, as long as the delay was within the airlines' control and not related to safety.
Filing a complaint with the CTA is supposed to be a last resort, when Canadian air passengers are denied compensation and unable to resolve their dispute while dealing directly with the airline. But instead of a prompt resolution, passengers are being told to take a number.
In total, the CTA says it's dealing with a backlog of more than 36,000 complaints, with complainants facing wait times of up to 18 months for a decision.
"We have received more complaints than we have been able to process in a given period of time," Tom Oommen, chief compliance and enforcement officer of the CTA, told CTV National News.
Dave Britton is one of the thousands of complainants waiting to hear back on a decision from the CTA. He was denied compensation by WestJet after his family trip was cancelled, but there are more than 33,000 people in line ahead of him.
