After a chaotic holiday season, representatives from Sunwing, Air Canada and WestJet made their mea culpa by apologizing to travelers during their appearance in the Bundestag committee on Thursday.

Haulers had been asked by the Ministere des Transports and the Standing Committee on Transport to come and explain the setbacks that have made headlines in recent weeks.

The three airlines have pointed to a major snowstorm in the east and freezing weather in the west as triggers for thousands of canceled and delayed flights around the Christmas period, according to a report by TVA Nouvelles.

“On December 23, Canada’s busiest travel day of the year, severe weather warnings were issued in all but one province,” said Andrew Gibbons, WestJet’s vice president of foreign affairs. It’s not a normal Canadian winter. »

David Rheault, Air Canada’s vice president of government and community relations, even mentioned an instance of “force majeure”.

“The recent travel disruptions are the result of major weather events and not a protective regime in the world, including the [Règlement sur la protection des passagers aériens]provides that air carriers should not be held liable for financial compensation in the event of force majeure,” he said.

According to TVA Nouvelles, transport companies said they were in direct daily contact with the Transport Minister’s office during what is commonly referred to as a “crisis”.

Sunwing is heavily criticized

Sunwing was particularly harshly criticized by Minister Omar Alghabra, who said the company had “violated passengers’ rights”, according to a report in La Presse newspaper.

“The problem is not that we didn’t have any regulations, but that private transport companies also failed to meet their obligations,” said the minister.

Sunwing’s lack of communication with its passengers is “unacceptable,” according to Aéroports de Montréal CEO Philippe Rainville.

He revealed last week he was calling for an action plan for the airline to rectify the situation ahead of the next busy spring break period.

According to La Presse, the two men answered questions from members of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities on Thursday afternoon.

Sunwing President Len Corrado apologized before blaming the weather, pilot shortages and poor infrastructure at airports.

“Let me begin by apologizing for not delivering the level of service that Canadians have come to expect,” he said at the outset.

7000 complaints received

Sunwing admitted to receiving 7,000 complaints due to its difficulties during the holiday season with many flights across the country. Hundreds of travelers have been stranded in Mexico during the holiday season after the airline canceled their return flight without giving them any information on when they could return home.

According to Mr. Corrado, these outages can be explained by three reasons: the winter storms that have hit many airports across the country – including Vancouver’s, which has had to close completely – the lack of infrastructure at certain airports, which has led to further delays – a baggage carousel was broken at Toronto Pearson Airport and lack of pilots.

An application to hire 63 foreign pilots was rejected by the federal government.

A bill in spring

Minister Alghabra has promised to introduce legislation in the spring to strengthen passenger protection regulations that came into force a few months before the pandemic began. The minister believes that the burden should be on the shoulders of airlines and not their customers.

Despite the apology, airlines have expressed anger at the new rules, which came into effect in September after a disastrous summer.

The amended rules mean that passengers are entitled to a refund if their flight is canceled or long delayed due to a situation “outside the control of an air carrier”.

“Airlines must now offer you a reservation on the next available flight within 48 hours of your originally scheduled flight time. The flight can be performed on their wings or those of a partner.” as described in this Radio-Canada article.

“If that’s not possible, airlines must offer you a rebooking or a refund within 30 days. In the latter case, you must use the same payment method that you used for your first reservation. »

For their part, Canadian airlines believe that they are the only ones who have to bear the brunt of all the pitfalls that arise in the world of air travel, when the problems are sometimes related to customs queues or when there is a shortage of staff at the airport, noted Andrew Gibbons, Vice President for foreign affairs at WestJet.

The latter does not believe that “the government’s priority” should be to increase penalties against “the only group that needs to be held accountable”, the airlines.