Ottawa taking further action to better protect air passengers

It will not change matters for consumers who have been impacted by the current COVID-19 crisis, but the Government of Canada is taking one more step to better protect air passengers who will be affected by future events.

In fact, the Canadian Transportation Agency's (CTA) draft regulations providing for new reimbursement requirements are now published in the Canada Gazette (Part I) for the public to review and comment on.

These proposed Regulations Amending the Air Passenger Protection Regulations would apply to all future flights to, from and within Canada, as well as connecting flights.

On Dec. 18, 2020. the CTA was provided with a new authority to develop a regulation requiring airlines to issue refunds to passengers for flights cancelled for reasons beyond airlines' control, when passengers' itineraries cannot be completed within a reasonable time. 

"We received over 119 submissions during the consultation period, which ended on March 1st 2021," the CTA says. 

Until August 31st to comment

The public has until August 31 to send their comments on the CTA project to Consultations-aeriennes.Air-Consultations@otc-cta.gc.ca. (The proposed regulations are now published here).

All new comments received after the publication of the proposed regulations in the Canada Gazette will be carefully considered, the agency says. 

Once approved by the CTA members and the Governor in Council (Cabinet), the final regulations will be re-published in the Canada Gazette (Part II). 

The CTA expects to finalize the settlement by fall 2021.

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