Why is airport chaos so chaotic? Expert: Holiday travel chaos is not the fault of airports but airlines
The holiday season chaos this week has created a significant strain for Canadian airlines.
Cancelled flights and endless lines. Mountains of lost baggage. passengers stranded for days This seems to be the case at most major airports throughout the country. Many wonder: Why isn’t there more preventative planning after all the turmoil airports experienced in the year preceding this?
Gabor Lukacs, president of Air Passenger Rights, A non-profit organization that advocates for and educates airline travelers. He claims that what is happening at Vancouver’s airports right now, apart from bad weather conditions, it’s poor organization by the airlines.
“It’s obvious that with the current weather in B.C. and in Toronto, planes cannot take off and they cannot land, that’s a matter of safety,” he tells Yahoo Canada News.
It’s a completely different matter when people are stranded on the tarmac for 10 or 12 hours, that’s poor planning because the airline should not have boarded on a flight that didn’t have a clear plan for de-boarding if they cannot take off.Gabor Lukacs is President of Air Passenger Rights, a non-profit organization
It is possible for flights to be cancelled because of weather conditions to be reasonable. However, it can become questionable if certain airlines cancel flights to certain destinations while others fly there.
“It’s not like airlines have such capabilities that one airline would be forced to cancel and others would not,” he says. “If it cannot, then it’s within the carrier’s control and not the weather.”
Lukacs says that if it becomes clear, based on sound methodological information that’s available, that there’s no reasonable hope that the flights are going to depart or land, then those flights should not be presented to the public as if they’re still scheduled.
“That means passengers will be at the airport, instead of the comfort of their home,” he says.
You need to be a passenger.
Lukacs is also seeing a lot of airline-related issues, such as tarmac delays and the inability to rebook passengers. Under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, if a flight is cancelled based on weather, or other conditions outside of the carrier’s control, the airline has to give passengers the option to be booked on the next available flight. If they cannot find a flight on their own network, the airline has to buy the passenger a ticket on another airline, if there’s one available.
“I expect both airlines (Air Canada and Westjet) to be battling this provision to some degree,” Lukacs says. “The latest question is, how is the government going to respond to that?”
The law allows for a fine of up to $25,000 per incident and per passenger. But whether that’s going to happen remains to be seen.
“The passengers rights are there in the books but they’re not being enforced and that’s a particular concern,” he says.
Passengers can be compensated for luggage lost but not offered alternate transportation when other options are available.
Lukacs isn’t confident the Canadian Transportation Agency will hold airlines accountable, as “they’re treating the airlines as untouchable, as if they’re above the law.” He adds that there’s no real evidence that airports are doing anything wrong in the current holiday chaos. Subcontractors are even responsible for functions such as refuelling.
“Airlines love pointing fingers to other players but I don’t see any evidence of that happening here,” he says. “For delayed passengers it looks like it’s the airport’s fault but actually, for the vast majority of these functions it’s the subcontractors for the airlines and so, the responsibility is on the airline.”