Time To Share

It’s time – some would say, long past time – to share accountability in this country’s civil aviation system and in a newly released report, the National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) has laid out a series of concrete actions to achieve that goal and in the process, improve the passenger travel experience.

The report, “Enhanced Accountability, Shared Responsibility and Services Standards in Canada’s Air Travel Ecosystem” was prepared in collaboration with the law firm YYZLaw and offers specific recommendations to the Canadian government to achieve its stated goal of improving air travel and transparency for passengers.

Jeff Morrison, President and CEO of NACC, pointed out that: “Both the Minister of Transport and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities recently endorsed the concept of shared accountability and we share this view.”

Morrison said that: “The recommendations in this report come at an opportune time, and we look forward to ensuring that a national shared accountability framework is implemented.”

Canada already has one of safest and most efficient air transport systems in the world. To further improve upon this, it is necessary to implement a model of shared accountability for the provision of air travel services, whereby all entities in the air travel ecosystem are held accountable through publicly reported service standards and public communications.

Key recommendations contained in the report include:

• Implementing prescriptive regulations to create a true shared accountability and responsibility model in Canada’s aviation ecosystem
• Ensuring service standards and capacity regulations are imposed on all entities in the aviation ecosystem, under the Canada Transportation Act
• Requiring all entities to communicate the reasons behind service disruptions in real time
• Allowing passengers to be entitled to compensation if service standards are not met by an entity within the aviation ecosystem
• Granting clear powers to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) to conduct compliance audits of entities within the aviation ecosystem’s adherence to service standards
• Updating data collection requirements under the Transportation Information Regulations, to require performance data from all entities within the aviation ecosystem who play a role in such activities.

Morrison emphasized that: “Canadians have made clear to the federal government that they expect a more reliable and transparent air travel experience. Implementing a shared accountability framework is a necessary step to achieve that.”

And he concluded: “As the federal government continues to pursue efforts to strengthen the overall air travel system, NACC calls on the federal government to incorporate the findings of this report into future reforms.”

The review the full report click here.