Federal Department of Transportation “will provide protection”.
Federal Transport Minister Omar Al-Habra said on Monday that airlines would close loopholes that would allow them to refuse to compensate customers for canceled flights.
At a press conference held at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on the same day, Minister Alhabra answered “yes” to the question of whether airlines would remove their immunity to deny passengers’ compensation claims on grounds of safety.
He also promised to invest $76 million to reduce complaints pouring into the Department of Transportation.
The Department of Transport said the budget would allow it to hire an additional 200 staff to handle about 42,000 pending complaints.
Currently, in Canada, airline passengers can demand compensation other than refunds if they cancel their flights in most circumstances, except for airline strikes, weather or war, but airlines can refuse compensation in case of safety-related issues. However, unlike Canada, there is no compensation loophole in Europe’s air passenger protection regulations.