As well Airline Complaints Commissioner Bruce Hood, has confounded skeptics and shocked the Transport Canada and CTA bureaucracy by insisting that Air Canada take meaningful action in reasonable timelines to satisfy legitimate customer complaints. If we are truly interested in achieving a domestic airline industry geared to efficiently serve the needs of Canadians, however, more must be done. An Airline Passenger Bill of Rights that incorporates reasonable standards based on customer expectations of service, comfort and safety should be included in the conditions of carriage for every airline licensee in Canada 2. Transport Canada should be required to maintain and publish key statistical information concerning airline service including company-specific data on flight delays, lost baggage, cancelled flights etc. The Complaints Commissioner should be given formal authority to impose a solution for customer complaints within a reasonable set of parameters.
Travel agents play a key role in dissemination of objective travel information to the customer.
Consideration should be given at both the federal and provincial levels for protection of travel agents from attempts by airlines to diminish their ability to render this useful service. If Air Canada is obliged under its licence to serve some geographically-remote regions of Canada, the cost of such obligations should be borne by all players in the system as a whole, and not compensated for by lax supervision of Air Canada's market practices. Canadians themselves have to become more vigilant and informed consumers of air travel. High-speed rail should be promoted as a desirable and competitive alternative to air travel. Finally, if we want airlines to act in the public interest, we have to provide the necessary public interest framework.