The Canadian Transportation Agency reports that a staff shortage is creating a backlog of air passenger complaints - many of which are related to staff shortages throughout the aviation industry.
Tom Oommen, the CTA's director general of analysis and outreach, told Canadian Press that the agency is trying to hire more facilitators to help resolve customer complaints against airlines.
"We are hiring," Oommen said in a phone interview with Canadian Press. "But people are always looking for other opportunities and places to leverage their knowledge. It's kind of an employee's market these days."
And the complaints keep flooding in, raising the backlog to more than 15,000 in May. The numbers continue to rise, with airports and airlines overwhelmed by a surge in travel after two years of restrictions.
Complaints seeking compensation for flight delays, cancellations and misplaced luggage comprise the majority of complaints.
Oommen told CP that it takes an average of 19 business days to resolve a complaint once it reaches an agency facilitator. But with the current backlog, it could be a year before that file lands on their desk.
A CTA decision on July 8 has raised the potential for another surge in complaints. The quasi-judicial body ruled that crew shortages causing cancellation or delay should not typically allow an airline to refuse compensation.
Carriers such as Air Canada and WestJet had been categorizing flight disruptions caused by staff shortages as a "safety" issue, making them ineligible for compensation claims under federal rules.
"The decision provides a level of interpretation that we haven't had before with respect to the categorization of crew shortages," Oommen said, calling the ruling "significant."
Despite the recent tribunal decision against that stance, Air Canada said in late July it would continue the policy, which it first told staff to adopt in a December 29, 2021 directive obtained by The Canadian Press.
Pax rights advocates have also questioned why the regulator has not gone after airlines for possible breaches of the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, also known as the passenger rights charter.
The CTA has the power to investigate and fine companies that violate the Canada Transportation Act. But since the passenger rights charter came into effect in 2019, the agency has issued no monetary penalties against airlines over lack of compensation for flight delays or cancellations.
Oommen told CP that complaints are the main mechanism to ensure regulatory compliance, with penalties usually reserved for more "black and white" breaches that are "relatively straightforward to enforce."
"The only way to make the passenger whole is through the complaints process," he said.
Interpretations of more nuanced rules offered up via tribunal decisions can help guide enforcement officers in how they probe companies and apply penalties, Oommen said.
"That, ultimately, is what changes behaviour ... because at a certain point airlines have an idea, they have the signal: 'OK, I can take this case 10 times to the agency and the agency's always going to say the same thing.'"
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