CTA says total air travel complaints up last year on increased backlog

Photo: The Canadian Press

An American Airlines American Eagle plane takes off at LAX in Los Angeles, Calif., Saturday, June 11, 2022. The Canadian Transportation Agency says the total number of complaints it faced about air travel rose last year, boosted by a backlog of issues carried over from the previous year. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The Canadian Transportation Agency says the total number of complaints it faced about air travel rose last year, boosted by a backlog of issues carried over from the previous year.

The agency says there were 28,673 complaints in total for the year up to March 31, 2022, up from 26,742 from a year earlier.

The year's total includes 12,158 new complaints, for about an eight per cent drop from the previous year, plus the carry-over of 16,515 reports from the prior year.

The agency says it processed 15,264 complaints, up from 10,227 the previous year, with about half of resolutions processed through the airline financial aid package.

The CTA says it was left with 13,409 complaints still in progress at the end of the year, a drop from the year earlier and in line with the total for the year ending March 31, 2020.

Complaints spiked starting in 2019 in part due to the passenger rights charter implemented that year, as well as problems from Air Canada's booking system, while early issues with pandemic cancellations also contributed.