Will a New Program Improve Passenger Complaint Resolutions at Air Canada?

Will a third party be more effective in resolving passenger complaints?

Air Canada will find out as they announce a limited pilot of an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process to test its effectiveness in settling customer claims for compensation filed under Canada’s Airline Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR).

The airline is inviting randomly selected customers to volunteer to transfer information from their outstanding CTA claims to an independent and impartial third-party ADR provider that will decide on their claims within 90 days after full information is received from both parties.

Outcomes decided under the pilot project will not be binding on customers, unless they accept them. Following the pilot, Air Canada will evaluate the results and consult with government on possible next steps.

“Everyone wants a swift and satisfactory resolution when disputes arise over travel disruptions,” said Marc Barbeau, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Air Canada.
“To achieve this, we are proposing the use of ADR in Canada for air travel, an independent, fair and effective method to quickly and fairly resolve air passenger claims that is widely used in Europe. As a first step, we have designed a limited pilot for a randomly selected group of our customers to transfer information from their CTA claim to ADR without any obligation to accept the result or give up their spot in the CTA’s queue.

For customers, based on experience elsewhere, ADR is expected to deliver a fast, impartial, and reasoned response to their claims. For airlines, it has the potential to address customer concerns, bring efficiency and consistency to the process, and reduce issues associated with unresolved claims by shortening the adjudication timeline.”

Air Canada has consulted with Transport Canada and the Canadian Transportation Agency on the design of the pilot project.