After the outpouring of anger over a United Airlines passenger who was injured when he was forcibly removed from a flight, the Canadian government announced that it will pass legislation to address the problem.
A spokesperson for Transport Minister Marc Garneau, Marc Roy, said that rules about bumping will be included in an air passenger bill of rights. The bill had been promised last fall. The bill will require clear minimum requirements for compensation when flights are oversold or luggage is lost. Roy however did not say whether the legislation would set industry-wide standards or whether the compensation levels would be raised to match those in the United States or Europe.
Garneau, the Transport Minister, would not comment directly on the United Airlines incident in Chicago. He said he did not know if a passenger in Canada can be removed due to overbooking. Garneau said: “I certainly have seen what happened in the case of the United Airlines flight and that is why last November I announced that we would be putting in place what we call a regime of rights for passengers. We recognize that when a passenger books a ticket, they are entitled to certain rights.”
Gabor Lukacs, a passenger rights advocate, said the troubling video showing the forcible removal of the United Airline passenger showed the need for greater protection of the traveler. Lukacs said: “Sadly, people realize what bumping actually means only when an incident so extreme happens." Lukas said all airlines should be forced to have the same compensation limits rising to a maximum of $1,500 in line with the US. In 2013 Lukacs won a Canadian Transportation Agency case against Air Canada which required the airline to raise compensation to a maximum of $800 depending on the length of delay.
The usual reason for a person being forcibly removed from a flight is that they are drunk or regarded as a threat. However, Lukacs pointed out:“If for any reason the airline tells you you need to leave, you have to leave. You don’t get a choice, you cannot argue about whether you have to leave or not because it is their aircraft.” Airlines overbook flights as a hedge against people not showing up. However not all airlines do it. Both Westjet Airlines and Air Transat said they do not intentionally overbook flights. Air Canada does but claims that bumping is rare. Spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said in an email: “We appreciate this is inconvenient for customers and we do take a very conservative approach to avoid this situation arising and when it does, we pay significant compensation.”
CEO of U.S.-based FareCompare.com, Rick Seaney, said that he had never seen anything such as happened on the United flight. He said that airlines typically raise the amount of compensation until someone volunteers to take a later flight. The Canadian Transportation Agency said it had received 55 complaints about overbooking in 2015-16 which was less than 4 percent of all the complaints filed.
The United Airlines incident that caused all the fuss was a flight from Chicago to Louisville. A United spokesperson said: “Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation.” The Chicago Department of Aviation(CDA) officers dragged the man off the plane. Karen Pride, spokesperson for the CDA said: “The incident on United flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department. That officer has been placed on leave effective today pending a thorough review of the situation.”
Joseph D'Cruz, of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto said that airlines overbook to save money:“Airlines overbook because very often people book a flight and then don’t show up. It’s called a no show. And the no-show rate can vary depending on the route. So in order to protect themselves from having empty seats on the plane, they overbook.” In Canada the federal government has not mandated any sort of compensation for those who are bumped D'Cruz said. Airlines apparently offer whatever is sufficient to entice a person to give up their seat. The United airlines case shows how few rights the traveler has.
United's Contract of Carriage says:"If a flight is Oversold, no one may be denied boarding against his/her will until UA or other carrier personnel first ask for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly in exchange for compensation as determined by UA. If there are not enough volunteers, other Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority." Passengers with disabilities, and minors under 18 will be the last to denied boarding. United policy further states: "The priority of all other confirmed passengers may be determined based on a passenger’s fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment." In the United States the biggest US airlines bumped 475,054 passengers from flights in 2016.
Mohamed Fahmy, the Al Jazeera journalist jailed in Egypt for a year, has been released on $41,000 bail. Fahmy was born in Egypt but is a Canadian citizen. He gave up his Egyptian citizenship as part of a deal that was supposed to end in his release.
A retrial was ordered for three Al Jazeera journalists, Fahmy, Baher Mohammed, and Peter Greste, an Australian. Greste was released and returned back to Australia on February 1. In the case of Greste, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott intervened directly calling Egyptian president el-Sissi three times. There have been demands that Stephen Harper also intervene personally beyond sending a letter. Marc Garneau a Liberal MP has been pushing for Harper to phone el-Sissi: ""I don't think there has been a voice conversation, and I think that's particularly significant. I understand that there are efforts now being made to have the prime minister speak to President el-Sisi over the telephone, and that's long overdue..I think that for the Egyptian president to be contacted by the prime minister of Canada, directly over the phone and talking to him, has a significantly greater impact than a letter.""
Harper maintains that the government has been active at all levels:" When asked about Canada's efforts on Fahmy's case, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday that his government had "been in contact with Egyptian authorities at all levels, including my level.""We will continue to press for his release. And we do remain optimistic that this case will be resolved," "
At the hearing at which bail was granted to Fahmy the retrial was set to resume on February 23. The family and Canadian government officials all thought that Fahmy would be released shortly after the release of Greste.
Liberal MP Marc Garneau said on Twitter and in a CBC interview: ""Good news, but pressure must be maintained for full release..I understand that when you're accused of terrorism, it's unusual to get bail, so I think that is an indication that some of the pressure is working, coming from all quarters."" However, eleven other defendants in the case including Baher Mohammed were also released on bail and all are accused of helping terrorism through support of the Muslim Brotherhood in various ways.
Even President el-Sissi regrets that Egypt jailed the three journalists. He told the German magazine Der Spiegel:""If I had been in office at the time, I would have wanted no further problems and would have asked them to leave the country," He regrets the controversy, recognizing, it seems, that while Fahmy and the others were convicted for damaging Egypt's international reputation, it is Egypt itself that has done more harm on that front because of the publicity and Western reaction surrounding the arrests."
The prosecutor wanted to go ahead with retrial of all three. Prosecutors had argued against the deportation of Greste on the grounds it would look as if foreigners were getting special treatment. If Fahmy were released as well, this would only confirm this to be so.
Under Egyptian law, now that the retrial has started the court must retry the entire case. The judge does not even have the power to stop the process. Now that the trial has begun, President el-Sisi cannot use his power simply to deport Fahmy. It looks as if Fahmy will be stuck in Egypt for some time to come.
