Air Passenger Complaints Balloon to a Record 46,000, Senate Committee Hears

Luggage is amassed in the baggage claim area at Toronto Pearson International Airport, as a major winter storm disrupts flights in and out of the airport, on Dec. 24, 2022. Cole Burston/The Canadian Press

The federal backlog of air passenger complaints regarding poor service has reached an all-time high of 46,000, a figure equivalent to a three-year wait, based on data from the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).

“Unfortunately we have quite a big backlog,” France Pégeot, chief executive officer of the CTA, said in his testimony at the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications (TRCM) on May 16. “We have 46,000 complaints in our backlog. Just last year we received 40,000 complaints.”