Ottawa looking into strengthening passenger rights regulations after Sunwing blunders: minister

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says the government is looking into further strengthening passenger rights regulations following air and train transportation chaos over the holiday season that saw cancellations and delays affect Canadians.

The Minister said he met Sunwing’s president Len Corrado Thursday morning, who reiterated the apology the airline gave customers after it left some customers stranded at airports across the country and outside of Canada.

In an interview with iHeartRadio Host Vassy Kapelos on Thursday, Alghabra also said Sunwing lacked “slack” in their operation which led to “frustrating incidents” during the holiday travel, and that the lack of communication from the airline to customers was “unacceptable.”

Alghabra said that he had met with Corrado earlier Thursday to discuss the airline’s failings.

“I expressed to him the frustration that I felt on behalf of Canadians and I know many, many of their customers felt,” he said. “And I posed many questions to him.

“There’s a lot of things that came together, unfortunately, at the same time, certainly driven by the extreme weather events that took place in two different parts of the country, and the ramification that had on the air sector, but I think Sunwing itself had its own operational issues that, unfortunately caused a lot of frustrations for many of their customers.”

In a statement Thursday, Sunwing apologized for flight disruptions which left flyers stranded over the winter holidays, but added that “most of our customers enjoyed their holidays with minimal disruption.”

The airline’s operations were heavily impacted by severe weather, with technical issues leaving staff scattered and customers left out of the loop regarding flight delays or reschedulings, some left in the dark for days on how they were going to get home.

Corrado reiterated to Alghabra in their meeting that mistakes were made, Alghabra said.

Alghabra said he expressed to him that Canadians expect some degree of weather-related issues when travelling during the holidays, but not something of this magnitude.

“Canadians understand that we live in Canada, and we have occasional extreme weather events that will have disruptions on the airline sector. But what seemed to be unacceptable was the lack of communication about when the recovery will take place, when the repatriation will take place, and certainly (Sunwing) left a lot of their customers in the dark, I think,” he said.

He added that although he didn’t want to speak on behalf of Sunwing, his understanding is that “they had very little slack in their operation to accommodate that stress that extreme weather had caused, leading to those frustrating incidents.”

For some customers, this meant being stranded in an unfamiliar city or country, unable to reach anyone from Sunwing for answers for days at a time.

One Saskatchewan family was stuck in Calgary for a week waiting to hear from Sunwing about when their flight home to Prince Albert, which was cancelled the morning they were meant to fly, was going to be rescheduled. They eventually had to buy their own new plane tickets home through WestJet, as no Sunwing representatives were provided to give them a way home.

When asked about accountability, Alghabra deferred to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), stating that the government had put in place regulations to protect passenger rights in 2019 and “empowered the Canadian Transportation Agency to uphold these rights, including fining violations by an airline operator.”

These regulations set out clearer minimum airline requirements in terms of the airline’s obligations to passengers when concerning communication, delayed or cancelled flights, denied boarding, tarmac delays, and lost or damaged baggage, among other issues.

Touted as a “world-leading” air passenger bill of rights, it laid out a standard of treatment that included airlines providing up to $2,400 compensation to passengers who had to be moved from an overbooked flight and up to $2,100 for lost or damaged luggage.

The regulations were recently updated in September to add “another layer of responsibility, even for unforeseen situations, where airlines should be refunding passengers, even because of weather,” Alghabra said.

Previously, airlines were only required to provide refund if a flight disruption was within their control, but the new rules meant airlines would have to provide refunds or rebook flights even if the flight was disrupted by weather or outside circumstances.

“Now we’re looking at it further (to see) what else can we learn from this and to strengthen this system,” Alghabra said.

“We have a system in place that protects rights, but I can tell you, we are currently looking at how we can make that system better.”

In a later interview with CTV New Channel on Thursday, Alghabra added that Sunwing was “committed to compensating passengers who were stranded,” and that this situation, while regrettable, is an “opportunity for (the government) to clarify rules further to ensure airlines uphold these rights.”

He said that he had met with other airlines that experienced issues over the holidays some of which led to lost luggage and bags piling up in airports.

Airlines are responsible for luggage, and one aspect that he is now looking into is clarifying rules about airlines’ responsibilities regarding luggage, Alghabra added.

“That’s what we’re looking at,” he said.

With files from Olivia Bowden