Air passenger bill of rights an utter failure

Like hundreds of thousands of Canadians I’ve had travel plans scuppered by COVID-19. As with so many others, I’ve found the airlines’ response is, Gee, sucks for you. They send out emails stating their terms and advising you not bother trying to get through in person because they still don’t have enough staff to handle the calls. And if you booked through a third-party travel service they don’t want to talk to you at all — call your agency, they say. They’re offering vouchers, good for limited periods, rather than refunds.

I’m fortunate that the amounts aren’t onerous and I can probably work around them. Many more aren’t. Airline travel is not a daily occurrence for most people. They spend months, or years, making the arrangements for weddings, reunions, family gatherings, anniversaries, vacations, adventures. They can’t just tell parents in another country to make sure to live a few months longer for what may be a last chance to get together. They can’t expect 20 or 30 or 40 other people who were organizing their lives for a once-in-a-lifetime event to start over. They can’t get time off whenever they want it. They can’t put their lives on hold at the drop of a hat because of events beyond their control, as this health crisis is making abundantly clear.

The airlines are in a desperate situation. The industry as a whole is fighting to survive. Air Canada announced Tuesday it will temporarily lay off 16,500 employees, after earlier sending home more than 5,000 cabin crew. WestJet will cut its staff by almost 50 per cent, offering a choice of early retirement, resignation, voluntary or involuntary leave. Air Transat has reduced its workforce by 70 per cent. Like Porter Airlines, it has quit flying for now.

It seems certain the shape of the industry will be vastly changed by this crisis. What percentage of those layoffs ever get their jobs back is anyone’s guess. Still, Ottawa is bending over backwards to help companies weather the situation, pledging to subsidize 75 per cent of wages for those that lose 30 per cent of their revenue. Justin Trudeau does not want to be the prime minister who allowed the demise of the domestic airline industry. Whatever he may say, crass politics will be part of the equation. Air Canada is headquartered in Montreal, WestJet in Calgary. If you think the prime minister bent his government, and his reputation, all out of shape to protect SNC-Lavalin a year ago over a supposed 9,000 jobs, imagine the lengths he’ll go to for a Montreal-based airline that carry’s the national flag. And to rescue Air Canada while letting WestJet disappear would be to hand Wexiters a departure visa and an invite to pick their new flag.

But why would the government favour the corporations over their customers? Are the executives in their corner suites more vital than the people who pay the fares? Air Canada and its executives and managers have pledged to forego part of their pay. Nice of them, but one imagines they earn far more than the poor schlubs sitting on phone lines desperately trying to get back the considerable sums they paid for seats that disappeared at the puff of a corporate email. Remember, these people didn’t cancel their plans: governments did, or airlines confronted by government orders. Of all the victims of the crisis, they are the least powerful.

The situation makes a mockery of the much-heralded air passenger bill of rights, introduced less than a year ago. The regulations claimed to provide “clearer and more consistent air passenger rights by imposing certain minimum airline requirements in air travel — including standards of treatment and, in some situations, compensation for passengers.” Yeah, sure. The Canadian Transportation Agency has already thrown its support behind the airlines’ voucher offers. The protection regulations “were developed in anticipation of relatively localized and short-term disruptions. None contemplated the sorts of worldwide mass flight cancellations that have taken place over recent weeks as a result of the pandemic,” it says. Besides, the regulations “only require that the airline ensure passengers can complete their itineraries.” It doesn’t say when. All the power is on the side of the airlines, which fought it to the end nonetheless. So why did Ottawa bother with such an obvious waste of time and effort, which has utterly failed on its first big test?

A British Columbia woman, Janet Donaldson, has filed a classaction suit against several airlines and travel companies, challenging the refusal to give refunds. Sébastien Paquette, a Montreal lawyer, is representing passengers in the suit. Paquette wants the money for cancelled tickets to be set aside while the case goes ahead. “The contracts of carriage between the passenger and the airline are very clear and it’s the right to a refund,” he said.

Class-action suits can take forever to be settled, unless the two sides reach an agreement first. But given Ottawa’s focus on corporate rights over passenger rights, ticketholders may feel they have no other option at this juncture. Transport Minister Marc Garneau is still too busy announcing that people will have to prove they’re healthy before they’ll be allowed onto planes or trains.

Garneau was once an astronaut. No one told him, before he was shot into space, that he’d be handed the bill if the flight was cancelled for some reason. Maybe he ought to give the same consideration to the people who find themselves stuck on the ground through no fault of their own.

THE INDUSTRY WILL BE VASTLY CHANGED BY THIS CRISIS.