Backlog of 25,000 Airport Complaints Requires 20-Month Wait: Canadian Transport Agency

People line up to go through security screening at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Aug. 5, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette)

Passengers making federal complaints over poor service at Canadian airports must wait nearly two years due to lengthy backlogs, says a Canadian Transport Agency (CTA) official.

“At the moment our backlog is about 25,000 complaints,” said Tom Oommen, director general of analysis and outreach at the Canadian Transportation Agency, as first reported by Blacklocks Reporter.

Oommen made the remarks in a recent appearance before the Commons transport committee, saying the complaints peaked over the summer but have slowed again recently.

“Before the pandemic we were processing roughly 5,000 complaints a year,” said Oommen. “Through efficiencies, we’ve managed to increase that to 15,000 complaints on average in a year.”

Bloc Quebecois MP Jean-Denis Garon calculated the resulting wait times, saying, “If I am the 25,000th in the queue this means I would have to wait a year and eight months without getting an answer. Do you think that’s reasonable?”

“There’s always room to improve,” Oommen responded.

John Lawford, executive director of the consumers’ group Public Interest Advocacy Centre, told the transport committee the backlog was due to “bad timing.”

“The Air Passenger Protection Regulations were proclaimed just before Covid-19 in the fall of 2019. However, it has always been the position of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre that the regulations were going to generate a backlog,” he said.

Part of CTA’s mandate is to investigate cases where people have had their Air Passenger Protection Regulations violated. In 2019, fixed compensation rates were $400 for a three-hour flight delay, $900 for ticket holders denied boarding and $2,100 for lost or damaged luggage, according to Blacklocks.

Conservative MP Lianne Rood told the committee of her personal experience with the conditions at an unnamed Canadian airport over the summer.

“Three-quarters of the flights on the board were either cancelled or delayed,” Rood said.

“There was nowhere to sit, not a chair to be found anywhere in the airport terminal. People were laying on the cement floor, sleeping on the ground, with long lineups to get food or drinks as they were waiting for hours and hours,” she added.

​​Major Canadian airports made headlines this year due to their long wait times and flight delays. A recent survey found Toronto Pearson International Airport ranked among the lowest in customer satisfaction of all major North American airports for the second year running.

Some major airlines have blamed federal pandemic travel measures for the delays. Travellers to Canada no longer need to use the ArriveCan app to enter the country as of Oct. 1, and COVID testing requirements and all other travel restrictions have since been dropped.