MPs calling minister, airlines, and passengers to testify as part of holiday travel chaos study

The House of Commons committee that handles transportation issues has agreed to launch a special study into the treatment of air and rail passengers this holiday season and will be calling on officials from the major airlines and Via Rail, as well as Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, to testify.

The House of Commons committee that handles transportation issues has agreed to launch a special study into the treatment of air and rail passengers this holiday season and will be calling on officials from the major airlines and Via Rail, as well as Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, to testify.

At an emergency meeting on Monday—called for by opposition MPs—committee members unanimously agreed to start this study before the House is scheduled to resume on Jan. 30. The first hearing will take place on Thursday and is expected to see the minister field a series of questions about what transpired and what accountability there will be.

Numerous incidents led to passengers struggling to get to their destinations this holiday season amid widespread delays and cancellations, including a Via Rail train derailment resulting in cascading chaos and hundreds of Sunwing passengers being stranded in Mexico after the airline called off flights.

MPs will also be calling on representatives from Sunwing, Air Canada and WestJet; authorities from the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver airports; Via Rail and CN Rail; the Canadian Transportation Agency and Transport Canada; as well as air passenger advocates and affected travellers to testify.

While this special set of hearings will focus on the period between December 2022 and January 2023, the committee will be incorporating its findings into a broader ongoing review underway on air passenger rights, as the debacle has given renewed attention on Canada's process for handling travel complaints.

The agreement to embark on this study came after MPs took turns sharing their dismay over what transpired for travellers this holiday season.

"Many of our constituents had their holiday plans disrupted or ruined, and spent long periods of time in airport or hotel lobbies, or in train cabins waiting for updates that were too slow in coming," said committee chair and Liberal MP Peter Schiefke during Monday's meeting. "Thousands of individuals and families had particularly miserable experiences that were compounded by futile attempts at trying to get clear explanations or trying to secure compensation for the time and money that they spent."