How to file a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency
30 days is how long the carrier has to resolve your written claim before you can complain to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA). After you file, the Canada Transportation Act sets two clocks: mediation must start by day 30 and, without an agreement, an order must follow by day 60 of mediation.
Canadian Transportation Agency (
Canada Transportation Act sets two clocks: mediation must start by day 30 and, without an agreement, an order must follow by day 60 of mediation.#When can you file a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency?
30 days is the wait before a complaint. Under section 85.04(1)(d) of the Canada Transportation Act, you can complain to the Agency once your written request to the carrier is not resolved within 30 days. For delay or cancellation compensation, you must make that request before the first anniversary of the disruption.
Source: Canada Transportation Act s.85.04(1)(d); Air Passenger Protection Regulations (SOR/2019-150) s.19(3)-(4) — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
The carrier then has 30 days from getting your request to pay or explain why compensation is not payable (APPR section 19(4)). APPR claim first, complaint second.
The Agency’s air travel complaints page tells you to contact the airline in writing first and to wait for a response “which can take up to 30 days”. It lists the claim deadlines too: 7 days for damaged baggage, 21 days for delayed baggage and 1 year for a delay or cancellation.
That one-year deadline governs the claim to the carrier. For a flight cancelled on 10 January 2026, a request made on 9 January 2027 is in time under section 19(3); one made on 10 January 2027 is late. No deadline for filing the complaint itself appears in the sources checked for this page; do not read that as a reason to wait.
Not your situation? See UK261, EU261 or, for US federal rules, the US DOT hub; work out which law fits. Routes and deadlines by regime: airline refused compensation, flight compensation time limits.
US federal rules, the Keep proof of the day the carrier received your claim, and mark day 30 from it.
#How do you file the complaint online?
Once 30 days pass without the carrier resolving your written claim, you can open the Canadian Transportation Agency’s air travel complaint form. The Act requires that written request before a complaint, so keep a dated copy of your claim and the carrier’s reply.
Source: Canadian Transportation Agency, air travel complaints — protection-passager-passenger.otc-cta.gc.ca; Canada Transportation Act s.85.04(1)(d) — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
- Send your APPR claim to the carrier in writing before the first anniversary of the delay or cancellation: flight number, date, the notice you received, the amount you claim.
- Count 30 days from the day the carrier receives it.
- If the request is still unresolved, open the air travel complaint form.
- Give times: scheduled departure, the moment a door opened on arrival, and the reason the carrier gave.
- Record the date you file.
Steps 1 and 2 meet the Act’s condition for a complaint; steps 3 to 5 are how to file a complaint with the CTA.
Arrival under APPR is when one of the aircraft doors opens after landing, not touchdown: land 2 hours 40 minutes late, wait 25 minutes for a door, and you arrive 3 hours 5 minutes late. The bands are on flight delay compensation in Canada.
Open the form only once you can show the 30 days have passed.
#What happens after the CTA accepts your complaint?
30 days after filing is the latest a complaint resolution officer must start mediation under the Canada Transportation Act. Without an agreement, an order must follow no later than the 60th day after mediation started. A filed agreement or order is enforceable as an order of the Agency.
Source: Canada Transportation Act ss.85.05, 85.06, 85.07(3); Air Passenger Protection Regulations (SOR/2019-150) s.19(4) — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
Step | Rule | Date in this example |
|---|---|---|
Carrier receives written claim | before the first anniversary | 12 January 2026 |
Carrier's 30 days end | APPR s.19(4) | 11 February 2026 |
Complaint filed | request not resolved within 30 days | 12 February 2026 |
Mediation starts, at the latest | no later than the 30th day after filing | 14 March 2026 |
Order, at the latest, if no agreement | no later than the 60th day after mediation started | 13 May 2026 |
On the Act’s own clocks, a complaint filed on 12 February 2026 that does not settle in mediation reaches an order no later than 13 May 2026: 90 days after filing.
Both clocks are maximums. Earlier mediation means an earlier order: the 60 days count from its start.
This page does not answer two questions: what an order can require a carrier to pay, and what happens if a carrier does not comply. No primary source checked on 15 September 2026 settles either. What the Act does say is that a filed agreement or order is enforceable as an order of the Agency. Ask the Agency about both in writing.
Put your filing date, day 30 and day 90 in one calendar entry, and quote those dates whenever you ask the Agency about your case status.
#Who has to prove the reason for the disruption?
Section 85.07(2) of the Canada Transportation Act puts the burden on the carrier. A complaint may raise whether a disruption was within its control or required for safety. If so, the disruption is presumed within the carrier’s control and not required for safety, unless the carrier proves the contrary.
Source: Canada Transportation Act s.85.07(2); Air Passenger Protection Regulations (SOR/2019-150) s.1(1), ss.10-12 — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
The label decides the money. Of APPR’s 3 categories, only the third pays section 19 compensation, and only if you were informed 14 days or less before departure.
Category 1 is outside the carrier’s control. It includes meteorological conditions that make safe operation impossible and a labour disruption within the carrier. Category 2 is within the carrier’s control but required for safety: required by law to reduce risk to passenger safety, excluding scheduled maintenance. In either, a delay of 3 hours or more or a cancellation brings alternate arrangements or a refund, but no compensation.
Inside a complaint, a “weather” or “safety” label stands only if the carrier proves it.
“When I complained, the airline first said the delay was ”weather“ (no compensation). After I pointed out the maintenance delay came first and the storm started after our original departure time, they changed it to ”safety related maintenance"" — passenger report, Reddit r/legaladvicecanada, July 2026 (n=1)
Ask the carrier in writing which category it applied and why, then cite section 85.07(2) in your complaint.
#How long are CTA complaints taking in 2026?
More than 97,000 air travel complaints were in the backlog, according to a Transport Canada news release dated 1 May 2026. The Act’s clocks, mediation by day 30 after filing and, without an agreement, an order by day 60 of mediation, set what the law requires. They do not measure the queue.
Source: Transport Canada news release, 1 May 2026 — canada.ca; Canada Transportation Act ss.85.05-85.07 — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
Transport Canada published that figure, not the Agency. Neither body’s average wait is in the sources checked for this page.
A backlog count is not a waiting time for your own file. The Act fixes only the timetable on paper. File the day after the carrier’s 30 days end, and an order, if mediation brings no agreement, is due no later than 121 days after the carrier received your claim: 12 January to 13 May 2026 in the example above. File later, and every date moves with your filing day.
The same release said: “In the coming weeks, the government will introduce legislation”. Whether that happened is not confirmed in the sources checked on 15 September 2026, so this page does not describe it.
Keep the claim, the carrier’s reply and your filing date in one dated file.
#What is CADR, and should you accept a transfer from Air Canada?
8 April 2026 is when Air Canada announced a voluntary pilot with Canada Aviation Dispute Resolution (CADR). CADR is an independent dispute resolution firm and a subsidiary of The CDRL Group. CADR decides within 90 days of a complete file, at no cost. The decision binds Air Canada; it does not bind you unless you accept it.
Air Canada announced a voluntary pilot with Source: Air Canada news release, 8 April 2026 — aircanada.com; Canada Aviation Dispute Resolution, site and service rules — cadr.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
Only invited passengers qualify. Air Canada invited 500 randomly selected customers with outstanding APPR claims at the Agency to transfer them; as of 15 September 2026 it is the only airline subscribed.
It is a voluntary, carrier-initiated pilot run by Air Canada with CTA consent to file transfers, not a scheme set by statute or regulation. Air Canada says it “consulted with Transport Canada and the Canadian Transportation Agency on the design”. CADR says the CTA “will allow claims to be transferred to CADR, where both the airline and passenger consents”.
Air Canada says taking part has no impact on the CTA queue. What a transfer, acceptance or refusal does to your Agency complaint is not in this page’s verified sources. Read CADR’s service rules in full before you agree to anything.
If you are invited and CADR later issues a decision, compare it with the APPR amount on the Canada APPR hub before you accept.
General information, not legal advice. For your specific case, contact the Canadian Transportation Agency or a lawyer.
#Sources
- Canada Transportation Act, ss.85.04(1)(d), 85.05-85.07 - laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
- Air Passenger Protection Regulations (SOR/2019-150), ss.1, 10-12, 19 - laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
- Canadian Transportation Agency, air travel complaints and air travel complaint form - protection-passager-passenger.otc-cta.gc.ca; formulaires-forms.otc-cta.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
- Transport Canada, news release on the air travel complaint backlog (1 May 2026) - canada.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
- Air Canada, news release on the CADR pilot (8 April 2026) - aircanada.com, checked 2026-09-15.
- Canada Aviation Dispute Resolution, service rules - cadr.ca, checked 2026-09-15.