'Our rights are not being enforced': Air travelling chaos prompts calls for federal action

As a computer outage sent a ripple of flight delays and cancellations across the United States Wednesday, an advocate is calling for changes here in Canada to the air passenger protection framework.

Gábor Lukács is president of Air Passenger Rights, an independent, non-profit consumer advocacy group for air travellers.

"Our rights are not being enforced by the federal government," he said.

He said the federal government is too soft on punishing airlines for violating the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) – a set of rules that first came into effect in 2019.

“The government has very strong powers already under the law. They can fine airlines if they stood by our rights, up to $25,000 per passenger, per incident, per violation, yet those fines are not being issued,” he told CTV Morning Live Winnipeg in an interview Wednesday.

Lukács’ comments come as thousands of flight delays and cancellations spread across the U.S. early Wednesday, after a computer outage led to a grounding order for all departing aircrafts by the Federal Aviation Administration.

READ MORE: FAA system outage impacting flights at Winnipeg airport

That fiasco comes on the heels of a turbulent holiday travel season in Canada that saw widespread delays and cancellations from major airlines and Via Rail. At an emergency meeting Monday, the House of Commons committee that handles transportation issues agreed to launch a special study into the treatment of passengers. Airline and rail officials, as well as Transport Minister Omar Alghabra are set to testify at upcoming hearings.

Lukács has also submitted a report to the committee.

CALLS FOR CHANGES TO AIR PASSENGER RIGHTS

Lukács said the framework of regulations meant to protect passengers is written in vague yet overtly legalistic language, making it challenging to navigate.

The advocate said he wants to see changes to Canada’s air passenger protection framework, harmonizing it with policies in Europe. He said overseas, there is a simple criteria for eligibility for compensation, and airlines can avoid compensating travellers only in ‘truly extraordinary’ circumstances.

READ MORE: Here’s what you’re entitled to if your flight is delayed or cancelled due to bad weather

“Most importantly, we would like to have serious strict enforcement and serious hefty fines for airlines that break the law,” he said.

In an interview on CTV News Channel's Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Monday, Alghabra said that in light of what transpired during the holiday travel season, he's hoping to table proposed changes to strengthen the relatively new air passenger bill of rights in the next few months.

"The minister has always appeared at Committee when asked. He will be happy to appear and take the committee's questions," said his press secretary Nadine Ramadan.

- With files from CTV’s Rachel Aiello