Regina airport CEO pleased with proposed changes to air passenger bill of rights

After a disastrous winter travel season, many people across Saskatchewan are eager to spread their wings this summer.

In response to all the flight cancellations, lost luggage and stranded passengers seen throughout the winter, Ottawa announced Monday that changes are coming to its air passenger bill of rights, which aim to tighten loopholes to traveller compensation and toughen penalties.

If passed, the reforms will put the onus on airlines to show a flight disruption is caused by safety concerns or reasons outside their control, with specific examples to be drawn up by the Canadian Transportation Agency as a list of exceptions around compensation.

James Bogusz, the president and CEO of the Regina Airport Authority, told the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday the proposed changes are supposed to streamline how a passenger can receive compensation for a travel disruption.

“Just think about the challenge we had with some of those sun flying destinations,” he said. “I’m really happy, though, that things are far better than where we were … in terms of baggage delays.”

Bogusz recalled all the calls the airport received from travellers who were left without their luggage over the holiday season.

“It’s … no surprise that there’s been new regulations proposed. The devil will be in the details. I’ll be interested to see, though, how they craft the wording,” he added. “Obviously, anytime (the industry) imposes burdens, fines (and) more regulation that does lead to increased cost on tickets, the airlines will certainly price in the risk.”

Bogusz said ticket prices have dropped from last year and he hopes they don’t jump too much as a result of the proposed regulatory changes.

WestJet strike vote

WestJet pilots voted in favour of a strike mandate on April 18 and could walk off the job before the May long weekend.

Bogusz said how job action will affect the airport remains to be seen.

“(It) can be anything from a full-blown strike to just disruption, where maybe someone won’t take overtime or they’ll do just their basic shift,” he said. “We are hopeful that things will settle.

“We’re finally seeing the industry really start picking up. Capacity is coming back to the Queen City, which has just been great for us, but only in the last few months.”

Airlines have been making more revenue, Bogusz pointed out.

He said the last thing southern Saskatchewan needs is to have its major carrier disrupted.

Summer travel season

Bogusz said he was pleased to first share on 980 CJME the airport will be at 93 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity this summer.

“This has been three years of challenges for everybody,” he said.

He added direct flights from the Queen City to Kelowna will begin at the end of next month, with flights to Montreal also returning in June.

According to Bogusz, the airport has more capacity with Air Canada going to Toronto than it had in 2019.

“We’re outperforming a number of other comparable-size cities in Canada and the demand is just rebounding,” he said.

— With files from The Canadian Press