The Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA) joins the Canadian Transportation Agency in urging the new Conservative government to include in the next budget adequate permanent funding for the…
The Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA) joins the Canadian Transportation Agency in urging the new Conservative government to include in the next budget adequate permanent funding for the Air Travel Complaints Program.
This program, which is the only recourse a consumer has against the airlines, has been managing consumer air travel complaints since the abolition of the Airline Complaints Commissioner’s position by the former government.
“ACTA believes that Canadian travelers are one of the most vulnerable groups of consumers. Next to buying a home or purchasing a motor vehicle, travel service can be one of the most expensive items that a consumer purchases throughout the year,” says Christiane Theberge, Vice-President, Public Affairs at ACTA. “And seeing how last year, consumer grievances surged 21 per cent to 1,337 complaints, the Air Travel Complaints Program plays an essential role in protecting Canadian travel consumers,” she adds.
For years, governments have been making promises to implement measures to protect Canadians, but to date have done nothing. Bill C-44, proposed last April 2005, but which died on the order paper, did not go nearly far enough to provide real protection for consumers.
ACTA hopes the new federal government will provide leadership in the adoption of Canada-wide measures to protect travel consumers by:
- Ensuring consumer complaints are received and given proper diligent treatment by adequately funding the Air Travel Complaints’ Program.
- Ensuring consumers are protected from hidden costs due to misleading advertising by airlines by coming forward with a legislation that would call for full price disclosure in fare advertising in all media across the board.
- Ensuring that some financial discipline is imposed on the airline industry, which has shown itself to be careless with advanced consumer payments, in order to restore consumer confidence.
- Reducing or eliminating undue special fees and taxes imposed by the government on air transportation in Canada, such as the Air Travellers’ Security Charge, all which are ultimately passed down to the consumer.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
