Complaints take flight

Winnipeg resident Doug Marks turned to Canada’s airline regulator when WestJet denied his compensation claim for a cancelled return flight from Palm Springs, Calif., in March 2024.

He’s been waiting nearly two years for the Canadian Transportation Agency to rule if he and his wife, Vicky, are owed compensation thanks to a backlog that has grown to more than 88,000 complaints.

“We’re still in the queue. That’s all they will tell me,” he said. “They initially said it will take up to 18 months, but it’s been almost two years. The frustration levels I’m getting now are almost through the roof.”

Marks said he’s being given the same answers as when he filed a complaint with the agency, an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal that settles disputes between travellers and airlines.

The agency and federal government have been criticized for the backlog, which had about 80,000 complaints around this time last year. Critics have called on Ottawa to do more to clear the logjam and strengthen national Air Passenger Protection Regulations.

Cindy Parker-Rentz, from Winnipeg, said she was told she was 69,977th in the queue and to expect an 18-month wait when she filed a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency in April 2024. WestJet had denied her compensation claim after a flight to Palm Springs was cancelled the previous month.

Parker-Rentz is still waiting to have the matter resolved.

“Every time I look (on the agency’s website), it says my request is in the queue. It doesn’t say where,” she said.

Air Passenger Protection Regulations requires airlines to compensate passengers for flight delays that are within their control and not safety related. In eligible situations, for example, large airlines must pay $1,000 if a passenger arrived nine or more hours late.

Marks and Parker-Rentz were scheduled to fly on the same day, but in opposite directions between Winnipeg and Palm Springs.

Both said WestJet told them their flights were cancelled because of unplanned maintenance for safety reasons. They said they weren’t given detailed information, leaving them to question whether the situations were truly outside of the airline’s control.

Parker-Rentz said passengers boarded and were told by staff a mechanical problem was fixed, but the flight crew was nearing its maximum working hours.

Passengers disembarked and were later told the flight was cancelled.

Parker-Rentz and the Markses were rebooked on flights with stopovers the next day. Parker-Rentz missed out on a day of her vacation. The Markses returned home two days late and without their luggage, which was lost during the journey.

Marks and his wife spent about US$800 for some expenses, including a hotel room.

The travellers said they have lost confidence in the airline industry, federal regulations that are intended to hold carriers accountable, and the Canadian Transportation Agency.

The Free Press contacted WestJet on Monday for a response to Marks and Parker-Rentz’s claims. A spokesperson said Tuesday the Calgary-based airline needed more time to investigate and respond due to the busy holiday travel season.

Canadian Transportation Agency spokesman Vincent Turgeon said the complaints backlog was about 88,400 as of Tuesday.

“The CTA cannot estimate the projected wait time for new complaints, as a critical variable of its workload is the number of complaints it receives, which is not predictable,” he wrote in an email.

“In other words, the backlog is driven not only by the number of cases closed, but also by the number of complaints being submitted, which has continued to increase significantly in recent years.”

The agency received almost 47,000 complaints in the 2024-25 fiscal year, the highest number since the passenger regulations were introduced in 2019. The agency had logged about 27,000 complaints in 2025-26 as of Sunday. The current fiscal year ends March 30.

A complaints resolution office was created in 2023 in a bid to speed up decisions.

Turgeon said the office closed more than 33,600 complaints in its first fiscal year (2024-25), a 201 per cent increase compared with the previous fiscal year. The office has closed more than 22,800 complaints so far in 2025-26.

Ottawa budgeted $75 million in 2023 over three years to try to tackle the backlog. The funding runs out soon.

Gabor Lukacs, founder of Air Passenger Rights, said there are multiple reasons the backlog continues to rise.

He said the air regulations are unnecessarily and disproportionately complex, with many hours of work required per case for transportation agency staff to determine if compensation is owed.

Lukacs said complaints would be resolved a lot faster if Canada matched European Union rules.

EU rules require airlines to pay compensation unless a delay or cancellation was caused by “extraordinary circumstances,” which do not include a technical problem that is discovered during normal maintenance or caused by a failure to correctly maintain an aircraft.

Lukacs also called on the federal government to enforce penalties when airlines wrongly deny compensation to passengers, who then pursue claims that add to the backlog.

He said the agency has not yet implemented a fee, as directed by Parliament in 2023, that would be charged to airlines to cover some or all of the costs of processing eligible complaints.

Met with opposition from airlines, the $790-per-case fee was initially expected to come into force in 2024. It is among Air Passenger Protection Regulations amendments that were delayed.

“If it were implemented correctly, it would create a significant incentive for airlines to settle reasonable claims. Not every claim, but reasonable claims that have a reasonable chance of success,” Lukacs said from Halifax.

The National Airlines Council of Canada has said the government’s proposed amendments would put an unfair burden on carriers and lead to higher fares for passengers, while failing to address the backlog.

It has argued that airlines are meeting the agency’s obligations and requirements to respond to claims, and should not be held responsible for its failure to reduce the backlog.

The council has said cost-recovery fees should not be applied in cases where the agency finds airlines complied with regulations.

Some passengers have taken airlines to small claims courts instead of filing complaints with the regulator.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca