Ottawa: Amid concern over security and tackling heavy rush at airports, the Government of Canada is taking new measures to address wait times and congestion at Canadian airports.

From September 8, 2022, new regulations will come into effect that will ensure that passengers are offered the option of a refund for flights that are cancelled, or where there is a lengthy delay, due to reasons outside of an air carrier’s control (such as major weather events, or a pandemic) where it is not possible for the air carrier to complete the passenger’s itinerary within a reasonable time frame.

These new rules will also be enforced by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), which is Canada’s independent, quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator of the national transportation system, with the powers of a superior court. Additional resources of $11 million were provided through Budget 2022 to assist the CTA in fulfilling their mandate as passenger travel volumes continue to rise.

Minister of Transport, Omar Alghabra, said that for the week of August 22 to 28, about 97.5 percent of flights planned for Canada’s top four airports were completed, which is an improvement from 95 percent for the first week of July.

Similarly, over 86 percent of flights from the top four airports left on time, or within one hour of their scheduled departure in the same period span. This is a significant improvement from under 75 percent for the first week of July and is approaching the pre-pandemic levels in August 2019 where 95 percent of flights were on time, or within an hour of scheduled departure.

The minister said that 87 percent of passengers at the four largest airports including Toronto-Pearson International Airport, Vancouver International Airport, Montréal-Trudeau International Airport and Calgary International Airport, were screened within 15 minutes by CATSA, an improvement from 79 percent during the first week of July 2022.

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