Canada Announces Passenger ‘Flight Rights’ Program

Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 09.10.08 | 9:45 AM ET

While the federal passenger bill of rights awaits Senate approval, over the border the Canadian government has launched a similar passenger protection program: Flight Rights Canada.

The Canadian program imposes a number of requirements on the airlines—perhaps most importantly, passengers must be allowed to disembark after 90 minutes on the tarmac, hopefully putting epic runway strandings to an end.

Speaking of those strandings, in Canada they haven’t been nearly as big an issue (as far as I know, no one’s started a blog about them) but I was glad to hear the government’s taking action anyway. I’m a little concerned, though, about the program’s exemption for those delays caused by inclement weather; in a Canadian winter, that’s a blizzard-sized loophole.