Feds release details of long-promised passenger bill of rights

TORONTO – Transport Minister Marc Garneau says new regulations requiring airlines to provide help and compensation to passengers stuck on tarmacs for hours will kick in on July 15.

“The standards of treatment include regular status updates, access to the washrooms, quantities of food and drink, and proper ventilation, or cooling, or heating. If takeoff is not imminent within three hours, passengers must be allowed to disembark,” he explains.

The new rules in the government’s long-promised passenger bill of rights will also require airlines to pay up to $2,400 for anyone who is denied boarding for situations within an airline’s control, and up to $2,100 for lost or damaged luggage.

“The airline is still obliged to get you to your destination, or to fully refund you, but on top of that, you get compensation,” Garneau adds.

But what officials call the more complicated regulations won’t arrive until mid-December.

Travellers will have to wait until just before Christmas for rules requiring airlines to seat parents beside or near their children at no extra cost, as well as compensation for cancellations.

Garneau says the rules and timelines aim to strike a balance between being fair to passengers and to air carriers.

He calls the rules around cancellations “more complex requirements” that require a longer runway so airlines can draw up and implement new policies.

“One of our objectives here was to try to make it as clear and as understandable as possible,” Garneau says. “Most people who buy air tickets quite often don’t look at all that small print that accompanies and ticket.”

Air passenger rights advocate “disappointed” with the result

But some are left wanting more, following the announcement from Garneau.

One part of the regulation Gabor Lukac is unhappy with is compensation for denied boarding.

“Of course there are some bombastic figures in the books, but in terms of actual entitlement to compensation, they’ll get zero,” he says. “Because the notion of the denied boarding is defined so narrowly that it denies passengers of compensation.”

Lukac claims while the government is listing compensation figures, that money will rarely be given out because it’s extremely difficult to qualify.

“It’s like someone telling you I’m going to give you a million dollars if you bring me a rock from the moon.”

Lukac adds he’ll be reviewing the wording of the legislation — and if he sees something as unlawful, he may ask the federal court of appeal to step in.