Close to 4 years after they filed a grievance with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), Andrew and Anna Dyczkowski lastly obtained a decision — in their favour.
In November 2023, a CTA officer decided their 24-hour flight delay from Vancouver to Costa Rica in 2020 was Air Canada’s fault. The airline was ordered to compensate the couple $1,000 every, as per federal laws.
“We were kind of happy that the system works,” stated Andrew Dyczkowski who lives along with his spouse, Anna, simply exterior Kelowna, B.C.
But as an alternative of getting money, the couple was served with court paperwork in January. Turns out, Air Canada is taking them to Federal Court in an try to overturn the choice of the CTA officer. The company just isn’t named in the case.
Feeling caught, the couple, who work in the development business, obtained a lawyer.
“We’re kind of numb,” stated Dyczkowski, who believes the authorized dispute must be between Air Canada and the CTA — not passengers.
“Leave us little folks alone. Like, we really don’t want to be in this business of courts, or hundreds of pages of legal documents,” he stated. “Something is really wrong in the system.”
The CTA, Canada’s transport regulator, is tasked with settling disputes between airways and prospects. Both events have at all times had the fitting to legally problem CTA selections however it not often occurs.
Tens of hundreds of air passenger complaints have poured into the CTA over the past couple of years.
During that interval, airways appealed simply six company selections involving compensation, in accordance to the CTA.
However, new federal government measures broaden the kind of CTA selections that may be contested in court. Some authorized consultants suspect airways will take benefit and drag extra unsuspecting passengers into authorized disputes.
“It’s really unfortunate; there’s going to be a lot more of these [cases], I think,” stated John Lawford, a lawyer and govt director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
Airlines are going “to try to further gum up the process and make the complaints process look bad, even worse than it already does.”
New measures defined
Opening the door to extra authorized disputes wasn’t the intent of the brand new measures, adopted in late September 2023. They had been designed to pace up the backlogged complaints course of by permitting the CTA to rent complaints decision officers who can challenge selections on behalf of the company.
But a byproduct of the change is that airways can now not problem the selections in the Federal Court of Appeal. Instead, carriers now should request a judicial overview in Federal Court, which has a decrease bar for the sorts of instances that may be contested.
“The airlines will be able to attack these CTA decisions on more grounds than they could have before,” stated Mark Mancini, an assistant regulation professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. “It’s a much easier process for the airlines.”
Even so, Air Canada disagrees with the notion that carriers will now flood the courts with instances. In an e-mail to CBC News, spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick stated authorized challenges “are complex and costly,” and solely pursued for “serious questions of fact or law.”
He added that because the new CTA measures took impact, the airline has solely contested the one case involving the Dyczkowskis.
Why did Air Canada launch the case?
Under federal guidelines, airways pay up to $1,000 compensation per passenger if a flight cancellation or delay was inside their management.
In court paperwork for the Dyczkowski case, Air Canada argues that unhealthy climate — which was exterior its management — was the primary cause for the delay.
The CTA officer who dominated on the case disagreed. Air Canada claims the officer “failed to properly evaluate the evidence.”
Air Canada’s Fitzpatrick says launching the case was the one manner the airline might get readability on the brand new CTA officers’ obligations when assessing proof. He added that the Dyczkowskis will not be on the hook for authorized charges if the airline is victorious.
Ottawa is transferring to strengthen protections for Canadian air travellers in half due to a large backlog of compensation complaints. Some proposed adjustments to the passenger invoice of rights embrace airways offering extra well timed info and compensating travellers for any delays deemed inside the airline’s management.
Fitzpatrick stated Air Canada did not goal the CTA as a result of that is how Canada’s judicial system works.
“The original case was between the passenger and Air Canada, therefore the review of the decision is between the same parties,” he stated.
The CTA has requested the court for permission to take part in the case however Air Canada is combating the request.
The Dyczkowskis’ lawyer, Peter Choe, who’s working professional bono, instructed CBC News a listening to will possible be scheduled in the autumn.
The CTA responds
The CTA instructed CBC News that, up to now, the brand new system is working effectively, with scores of newly employed officers tackling its backlog of greater than 72,000 passenger complaints.
“We’re processing them faster,” stated spokesperson Tom Oommen in an interview.
When requested about issues that airways could strive to overturn extra selections in court, Oommen stated it’s too early to inform.
“That’s not something we have a clear line of sight on for the moment,” he stated. “If we need to adjust, then certainly that’s advice we would bring to the government.”
But shopper advocate Lawford argues a wait-and-see method is unfair to passengers.
“They shouldn’t be using customers as guinea pigs to test their system,” he stated. Lawford suggests the CTA ought to change its format to an ombudsman-type service the place disputes are resolved with no authorized recourse.
“The airline regulations should be free. They should be simple to understand. And it shouldn’t involve court ever for consumers.”
The CTA’s Oommen says that if a passenger is called in a judicial overview case, they don’t seem to be required to take part.
He stated even when the passenger is a no-show, the choose will nonetheless overview all related paperwork to decide if the CTA officer made the fitting determination.
Although he would not need to go to court, Dyczkowski says if he did not, “that means that the judgment can be issued against you, without you having a chance to say anything.”