Thank you.

Mr. Chair and honourable members, Air Passenger Rights is Canada's independent, non-profit organization of volunteers devoted to empowering travellers. We speak for passengers whom we help daily in their struggle to enforce their rights. We take no government or business funding. We have no business interest in the travel industry.

Once upon a time, travel was simple. We bought a ticket. We were quoted and paid a price that covered all aspects of our trip. This commercial norm is codified in the Canada Transportation Act. Section 55 defines basic fare as “one-way air transportation of an adult with reasonable baggage between two points in Canada”. Subsection 86(1) requires the Canadian Transportation Agency to make regulations to enable passengers to readily determine the total amount to be paid for the air services they buy.

You rightly wonder why, despite clear legislative language, Canadian passengers are facing a myriad of junk fees for services inherent to air travel—seat selection fees, checked baggage fees, carry-on fees and even a fee for checking in at the airport. Junk fees are deceptive marketing tactics that hinder readily determining how much passengers will end up paying.

The airlines' decision to charge junk fees is a rational act to maximize profits in the face of ill-advised regulatory policies. It is not the airlines; it is cabinet who is to blame for approving or failing to vary the agency's decisions and regulations that have eroded existing legal safeguards against junk fees. Make no mistake: The buck stops with cabinet, not the agency.

The agency requires cabinet approval for any regulation it makes. Under section 36 of the act, the agency cannot make regulations on its own. Furthermore, cabinet has the power to vary or rescind any decision, order or regulation made by the agency. The source of that power is section 40 of the act. For example, cabinet is empowered to revise the air passenger protection regulations, APPR, on its own motion, at any time, and without waiting for the agency for years.

When it comes to the erosion of existing safeguards against junk fees, there are two noteworthy landmarks. First, in 2012 cabinet approved regulations requiring airlines to advertise the total price of air travel. Alas, they treated baggage fees as an “optional incidental service”. These provisions were initially in the air transportation regulations, but made their way into the APPR under the current government's watch. Second, in 2019 the agency exempted ultralow-cost carriers from complying with the “basic fare” requirements in the act. This decision enabled some airlines to not offer any fares that include baggage. Cabinet did not step in to rescind or vary the agency's decision on these exemptions.

The airlines did not break the law by introducing junk fees. Rather, cabinet's poor judgment enabled the airlines to introduce junk fees and made junk fees so profitable.

There is a simple way to end junk fees in air travel in Canada. The APPR's price advertising provisions should be varied to clarify that a personal item, a standard carry-on, the first piece of checked baggage and checking in at the airport are not optional incidental services. Any charges for these services must be included in the total price being advertised and quoted. Doing so would also foster fair competition by making it easier for passengers to compare fares offered by different airlines. Airlines would still be at liberty to offer a discount to passengers who make an informed decision to not use some services.

We ask you to urge cabinet to promptly exercise the powers conferred upon them in section 40 of the act by varying the APPR's price advertising provisions to end junk fees for Canadian passengers.

Thank you.

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