Complain to the Canadian Transportation Agency about air travel: contact the airline first, file the CTA complaint, and follow the 90-day decision process.
Applies in: CA
This guide covers complaining to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) about air travel. It describes the complaint mechanics only: the airline-first step, the eligibility rules, the documents to gather, the online form, and the process that ends in a binding decision. It gives no legal advice and does not assess whether any particular complaint will succeed. The CTA's simplified complaint process applies to all air travel complaints, including complaints already submitted, and does not affect the compensation or other entitlements you may be owed, according to the Air travel complaints resolution process page.
The CTA is the second step, not the first. Before you submit a complaint to the CTA, you must contact the airline and wait 30 days for its reply, as stated on the Air travel complaints overview page. At the eligibility review stage, the CTA checks that you sent your complaint to the airline in writing before submitting it to the CTA, waited 30 days for the airline's answer, and that your complaint remains unresolved.
Act quickly, because the deadlines for contacting the airline run from the incident, not from the CTA filing. The overview page lists them as follows: damaged baggage, file a claim with the airline within 7 days of receiving your baggage; delayed baggage, within 21 days of receiving your baggage; lost baggage, as soon as possible, with baggage considered lost when delayed for 21 days or when the airline admits to losing it before 21 days; and flight delays and cancellations, file a request for compensation with the airline within 1 year of the delay or cancellation, with the airline given 30 days to make a payment or explain why not. Keep a copy of your written complaint to the airline and any reply, since proof that you contacted the airline in writing is the first document the CTA form asks for.
Your complaint must meet the eligibility criteria set out on the Air travel complaints overview page:
If your complaint does not meet these criteria at the eligibility review, the CTA may find it ineligible and notify you. The CTA also cannot award compensation for stress, loss of enjoyment or loss of income under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, as the flight delays and cancellations page states. If your issue is about airline customer service, contact the airline directly, since that subject falls outside the CTA's complaint process.
Gather everything before you start the form. The overview page states that you will be asked in the form to provide information about your flight and the problems you experienced, and to upload your documents throughout the form, and that documents must be in digital format, since physical copies are not accepted. Collect the following:
The form also requires you to state the outcome you want for each issue, with the amount where one applies: a refund of tickets and the amount, reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses and the amount, or compensation for inconvenience, which for flight delays, cancellations or denied boarding is pre-determined by the Air Passenger Protection Regulations based on the size of the airline and the length of the delay. Include the names of all passengers and all issues in the complaint the first time, since the complaint must cover the incident and the people who experienced it completely.
Submit your complaint using the online air travel complaint form, through the Air Passenger Protection complaint page. There is no fee to submit an air travel complaint to the CTA, and you do not need a lawyer: you can complete the form and any actions required during the process yourself, or have a friend, family member, representative or lawyer submit the form for you, as long as everyone included actually experienced the incident. You can submit a complaint on behalf of someone else with their consent, and parents or legal guardians do not require consent to act for their minor children.
You must access and use the online CTA eServices Portal throughout the process. Think carefully before adding a representative: if you do, all notifications go to the representative's email address, you will not receive emails from the CTA or have access to the portal, the representative manages the complaint and shares information and decisions with you, and once you appoint a representative you cannot undo the action. A representative must be added before a Start Notice is issued, either in the online complaint form or in the portal after registration. If you want help without giving up access, ask someone you trust to help you while you keep receiving emails and portal access yourself.
Filing starts a queue, not the clock. The CTA continues to receive a high volume of air travel complaints, and states it may take in excess of 24 months before a complaint can be reviewed, according to the Air travel complaints resolution process page. Once your complaint is ready to be assigned to a CTA resolution officer, you receive a Start Notice at the email address you used to submit the complaint. The period for a decision is 90 days, starting from the issuance of the Start Notice, and not from the date the complaint was submitted. After the Start Notice, the review is completed within 90 days. The steps inside that period are:
Compensation for inconvenience is a fixed amount set out in the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, and it applies only where the situation is within the airline's control. For flight delays and cancellations, the airline must pay compensation if the delay or cancellation is fully within the airline's control but not required for safety, you were informed 14 days or less before your original departure time, you arrived late at your final destination by 3 hours or more, and you filed a claim for compensation in writing with the airline within 1 year of the delay or cancellation, as stated on the flight delays and cancellations page. The amounts depend on how late you arrived and on airline size:
Airline size is based on the number of passengers an airline carries worldwide over the past two calendar years. Large Canadian airlines are Air Canada including Jazz and Rouge, WestJet, Sunwing Airlines, Air Transat, Porter and Flair Airlines, and all other Canadian airlines are small. The airline's tariff states its size.
For denied boarding, or bumping, airlines must provide compensation for the inconvenience if the disruption is within the airline's control and not related to safety, with the amount depending on how long your arrival was delayed, as stated on the denied boarding page: less than 6 hours late, $900; 6 or more hours late but less than 9, $1,800; and 9 or more hours late, $2,400. If compensation is owed, the airline must offer it in monetary form, such as cash, cheque, bank draft or electronic bank transfer, and may offer another form, such as a voucher, only if it informs you of the monetary amount, states the alternative's value in writing, the alternative is worth more, has no expiry date, and you confirm in writing that you know about the monetary compensation and choose the alternative instead.
What the airline must offer for rebooking, refunds and assistance also depends on airline size and on the level of control the airline had over the disruption: within its control, within its control but required for safety, or outside its control, such as extreme weather, emergencies, security, labour or airport issues, or government-issued travel bans. This guide does not reproduce the rebooking tables, because the obligation differs by situation and size; check the flight delays and cancellations page and the denied boarding page for the situation that matches yours before deciding what to ask for.
Yes. Before you submit a complaint to the CTA, you must contact the airline and wait 30 days for their reply. Your complaint must have been sent to the airline in writing before you submit it to the CTA, you must have waited 30 days for the airline's answer, and your complaint must remain unresolved. There are also deadlines for contacting the airline itself: file a claim for damaged baggage within 7 days of receiving your baggage, for delayed baggage within 21 days, for lost baggage as soon as possible, and a request for compensation for a flight delay or cancellation within 1 year of the delay or cancellation, with the airline given 30 days to pay or explain why not.
The CTA cannot award compensation for pain and suffering or loss of income, and it cannot deal with subjects outside its jurisdiction, such as airport security screening or airline customer service. Your complaint must involve a flight incident the CTA can address, such as a flight delay, you or the people you submit for must actually have experienced the incident, and you must be seeking compensation, a refund or reimbursement for expenses related to that incident. Your complaint cannot be vexatious or made in bad faith. Check the CTA's list of issues outside its jurisdiction before filing if you are unsure whether your issue qualifies.
Compensation for inconvenience under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations is a fixed amount, and it applies only if the situation is within the airline's control and not required for safety, you were informed 14 days or less before your original departure time, you arrived at least 3 hours late at your final destination, and you filed a claim in writing with the airline within 1 year. For large airlines the amounts are $400 for a delay of 3 or more hours but less than 6, $700 for 6 or more but less than 9, and $1,000 for 9 or more. For small airlines the amounts are $125, $250 and $500 for the same delay bands. For denied boarding, the amounts are $900 for less than 6 hours late, $1,800 for 6 or more but less than 9, and $2,400 for 9 or more.
No to both. It does not cost anything to submit an air travel complaint to the CTA, and you do not need a lawyer. You can complete the complaint form and any actions in the process yourself, or have a friend, family member, representative or lawyer submit the form for you, as long as everyone included in the complaint actually experienced the flight incident. You must access and use the online CTA eServices Portal throughout the process. If you add a representative, only the representative receives emails and portal access, you lose that access, and the appointment cannot be undone, so add a representative only if you understand that trade-off, and only before a Start Notice is issued.
Longer than the 90-day figure suggests, because the 90 days run from the Start Notice, not from filing. The CTA receives a high volume of complaints and states it may take in excess of 24 months before your complaint can be reviewed. Once your complaint is ready to be assigned, you receive a Start Notice, and the review is completed within 90 days of that notice. Within that 90 days, the airline gets a maximum of 14 calendar days to answer, you get 4 calendar days to reply to the airline's answer, eligibility is reviewed, mediation may run, and the Complaints Resolution Officer issues a binding decision.
Gather them before you start the form, in digital format, since physical copies are not accepted and you upload documents throughout the form. You need proof that you contacted the airline in writing, your airline ticket, booking confirmation or invoice, your booking number or reservation code, and your complete flight itinerary. You may also need receipts for out-of-pocket expenses, your ticket number and boarding pass, written confirmation of what the airline offered if you were denied boarding, and for baggage issues a Property Irregularity Report or incident report, a damaged property report if provided, a complete list of missing or damaged items with the value per item, and receipts for replacement items.
No figure in this guide was carried from a secondary source. The following were cut because they could not be verified on an opened CTA page: monetary limits for lost, delayed or damaged baggage; the standards for tarmac delays, seating of children and assistance during delays; the steps for registering in the CTA eServices Portal and tracking a complaint's place in the queue; and whether a filed complaint can be amended after submission. Check the CTA pages linked above before relying on any of those points. This guide gives no legal advice; it describes the complaint process only, and whether a remedy is ordered is decided by the Complaints Resolution Officer on the evidence in each case.