Passenger rights: Proposed changes will do little, experts say [Video]

TORONTO –

Proposed changes to Canada’s passenger rights charter will perpetuate loopholes that allow airlines to forego compensating travellers whose flights are disrupted, say airline experts.

Ottawa has proposed an update to rules surrounding airlines’ obligations when a flight is delayed or cancelled by designating certain factors outside a carrier’s control, such as weather that could affect flight safety, as “exceptional circumstances.”

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Under the amended rules, airlines are still generally not required to provide compensation for inconveniences to passengers in situations involving such factors, though there are some exceptions.

But Air Passenger Rights advocacy group president Gabor Lukacs called the weekend announcement of the proposal “deceptive” and said that Transport Canada is actually “preserving the status quo.”

He said that under the newly outlined …