Canadian airlines push back against court challenge on passenger complaints

MONTREAL — Canada’s biggest airlines are opposing a court challenge to rules that block travellers from sharing the outcome of passenger complaints made to the country’s transport regulator.

In a court filing this week, Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat, Jazz Aviation and the industry group that represents them are seeking to intervene in a case over whether Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) rulings on customer complaints are open to the public.

Under a complaint resolution process in place since 2023, consumers and airlines are barred from publicly disclosing the result of complaints on matters ranging from accessible travel to compensation for a cancelled flight — unless both parties agree to waive confidentiality.

The airlines argue that complaint cases involve submissions with sensitive information that could undermine carriers’ commercial interests and create privacy risks for passengers and employees.

They also claim that safety could be compromised, as workers might think twice about disclosing problems that could result in more payouts to passengers.

“If internal safety communications or operational assessments are made public, employees may hesitate to report issues, weakening the proactive reporting environment that aviation safety requires, resulting in a chilling effect,” the court filing states.

Jeff Morrison, CEO of the National Airlines Council of Canada, qualified in an email that “we have no issues with the disclosure of decisions if they do not reproduce confidential information of the airlines.”

Advocacy group Air Passenger Rights in June filed a constitutional challenge in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, arguing Canadians should have access to rulings by the quasi-judicial tribunal.

Gabor Lukacs, who heads the group, claims the confidentiality rules amount to a “gag order” that violates freedom of expression.

“Nobody can talk about it, nobody can critique it, nobody can study it, nobody can point out inconsistencies,” Lukacs said, referring to decisions by the body’s complaint resolution officers.

He said the agency’s complaint process amounts to a black box.

“The airlines clearly don’t want their dirty laundry in the open,” he claimed.

The confidentiality rules also discourage passengers from spreading the word on what their fellow travellers might be owed, advocates say.

Airlines can maintain their own databases of rulings. “But passengers cannot share those decisions among themselves. So it creates a significant imbalance in the proceeding itself,” Lukacs said.

Last year, consumer rights advocates raised alarm bells about a proposed change that would give the transportation agency new powers to penalize air travellers for breaching the confidentiality rules.

In an online post in January 2025, the transport watchdog put forward an amendment that would allow it to fine airline customers who break confidentiality on complaints they file with the regulator.

The agency has said the rule would merely add standard enforcement powers to a confidentiality provision that was legislated by Parliament.

However, legal researcher John Lawford has expressed concern over the silencing effect of both the confidentiality provision and the proposed penalties around it, which are still pending.

“I think it’s unfair, and it will discourage people from using it,” he told The Canadian Press last year.

Comparable processes such as those at the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, a telecom watchdog, have no confidentiality requirements, he said.

The Canada Transportation Act caps penalties against individuals at $5,000, but the agency can set lower ceilings in its regulations.

The issue over transparency in complaint rulings comes as those complaints continue to mount.

According to the agency, the backlog stood at nearly 89,000 as of Jan. 4, a record high.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 23, 2026.

Companies in this story: (TSX:AC, TSX:TRZ)

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press