2023-08-18 04:00:00
Victory for airlines: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear their challenge to the Travelers Bill of Rights. This attempt to undermine the charter had been tabled quickly, as soon as it was adopted by the federal Parliament.
The new law is being attacked by a broad coalition representing most of the world’s major airlines, including Air Canada. They argue that the problems in aviation are related to a set of factors, many of which are beyond their control. Obviously, the bottom line, they don’t want to pay to compensate customers.
The right to go to court, for a business or an individual, is obviously a fundamental right. But there is still something slimy in seeing giants contesting by all available means this first effort by the Canadian government to give rights to passengers.
Minimum rights
Do we still need to remember to what extent the consumer was left to himself before the adoption of this charter? Lost money, wasted trips, damaged luggage, hours on the tarmac without water or food, Canadian passengers have suffered.
Should we also remember that this first version of the charter, the one on which the Supreme Court will rule, was very minimal? We saw this in the holiday brothel last year. A small percentage of injured travelers might really hope for compensation.
The burden of proof was entirely on the client’s back. Companies might pass anything off as a case of force majeure, the most egregious case being the treatment of understaffing as an uncontrollable safety issue.
Your flight does not leave? It’s that we didn’t have the required employees. Understaffing compromises passenger safety. So since the decision is made in the name of safety, offsets should not apply. And your management in there?
The finding of ineffectiveness of last year’s charter and the collective anger that followed forced the federal Minister of Transport to tighten the bolts of the law. So much the better. We’ll see the effect of these improvements when more hiccups occur.
You have to have a head!
I am uncomfortable with this challenge for several reasons. First, for a local company in the country like Air Canada, we are tempted to remind everyone of the extent of the financial support offered by the government, particularly during the pandemic.
When the government signs a check, it is valid and valid. When the same government imposes a minimum framework for the protection of travelers, it goes astray and must be brought back to the right path. Shocking! And I’m not even talking regarding the dark message sent to Canadian customers.
As for the other companies in the world, they do a lot of business in Europe, where there is a passenger charter with much more teeth than that of Canada. And they have no plan to leave the European market.
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