Lost, delayed or damaged baggage on a Canadian flight: what APPR adds
1,519 SDR is the Montreal Convention limit the Canadian Transportation Agency gives for a bag lost or damaged on a flight taken on or after 28 December 2024; a flight before that date is capped at 1,288 SDR instead. The Air Passenger Protection Regulations add the baggage fees you paid on top of that amount, on any flight into, out of or within Canada.
Canadian Transportation Agency gives for a bag lost or damaged on a flight taken on or after 28 December 2024; a flight before that date is capped at 
Canada#How much can you get for a lost or damaged bag on a Canadian flight?
1,519 SDR is the Montreal limit on a flight from 28 December 2024, 1,288 SDR before it, and APPR section 23(1) requires at least your baggage fees plus the Montreal amount for a bag that is lost or damaged. That applies even to a flight that never leaves Canada, as if it were international.
Montreal Convention baggage limit, by flight date
Flight date | Maximum (SDR) |
|---|---|
Before 28 December 2024 | 1,288 SDR |
From 28 December 2024 | 1,519 SDR |
Source: CTA, Compensation for lost, damaged and delayed baggage (modified 2026-03-04) — protection-passager-passenger.otc-cta.gc.ca; Montreal Convention art. 22(2), 24, ICAO 2024 revised limits — icao.int; APPR s.23(1) — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-22.
Which tier applies depends on the date of the flight, not the date you file the claim or the date the payout arrives. Compensation is at least the baggage fees you paid, standard, extra or oversized and overweight, plus the amount payable under the Montreal Convention, up to whichever SDR limit the flight date sets; the refund does not extend to any baggage allowance that was already included in your fare. A domestic flight between two Canadian cities gets exactly the same Montreal-based limit as an international one, because where the Carriage by Air Act does not apply, section 23(1) uses the amount payable under the Convention “if the carrier were conducting international carriage”.
A bag that has not turned up 21 days after it was due counts as lost under the Montreal Convention itself, not only under APPR’s own wording, so the same 1,519 or 1,288 SDR ceiling applies whether the airline admits the loss outright or simply never finds the bag.
File a Property Irregularity Report with the airline before you leave the arrivals area; the full process for that report sits at Property Irregularity Report.
#What about a delayed bag, and why do the CTA and APPR read differently?
Section 23(2) sets a legal minimum for a bag that is delayed rather than lost outright: your baggage fees plus the Montreal Convention’s delay amount, on the “as if international” basis, even though the CTA’s own guidance for a domestic flight points passengers to the airline’s tariff instead. Both are true, and the Regulations set the legal minimum.
Source: APPR s.23(2); CTA, Compensation for lost, damaged and delayed baggage; CTA, Baggage requirements for domestic services guide — protection-passager-passenger.otc-cta.gc.ca, otc-cta.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-22.
The Canadian Transportation Agency’s current compensation page says of a domestic itinerary: “Your rights are outlined in the airline’s tariff”. Its 2023 domestic-baggage guide goes further: for delayed baggage, the limits are “those set out by airlines in their domestic tariffs, which are expected to be consistent with the Montreal Convention.” That reads narrower than section 23(2) itself, which does not carve domestic flights out. Read together, the tariff sets how the airline processes a domestic delay claim, while the Regulations still set the minimum beneath it. APPR is not silent on a domestic delayed bag: section 23(2) covers it.
Check your own airline’s tariff for its delayed-baggage clause, for example Air Canada or WestJet, and cite section 23(2) if the offer falls short of your baggage fees plus the Montreal delay amount. General cross-regime coverage of a delayed bag, outside Canada, sits at lost or delayed baggage compensation.
Air Canada
WestJet#Why is the 1,000 SDR in the Carriage by Air Act not the amount you get?
1,000 SDR is the baggage limit still printed in Canada’s Carriage by Air Act, word for word from the original 1999 Montreal Convention text; the Act has not been amended to carry the 2009, 2019 or 2024 revisions. It is not the limit that applies to your claim today.
Source: Carriage by Air Act s.2(2.1), Sch. VI art. 22, 24 (current to 2026-07-21, last amended 2003-11-04) — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-22.
Section 2(2.1) of the Act gives the Montreal Convention, as printed in Schedule VI, the force of law in Canada, but the Act’s own consolidation is “current to 2026-07-21 and last amended on 2003-11-04”, so Schedule VI still reads in its unrevised 1999 wording: 1,000 SDR for baggage, 4,150 SDR for delay of persons. The 1,519 SDR figure this page uses comes from the Canadian Transportation Agency’s current compensation page (modified 4 March 2026), matching the Montreal Convention’s 2024 revision, not from the Act’s own printed text. Even the regulator’s older pages lag behind: the CTA’s domestic baggage guide, last modified in January 2023, still states “1,288 special drawing rights,” the figure that applied before the 28 December 2024 change.
If you read the Act’s own text, treat its printed 1,000 SDR figure as history, not the number to claim; quote the CTA’s current compensation page, 1,519 SDR, instead.
#What are the deadlines for a baggage claim in Canada?
7 days is the deadline to report damaged baggage to a Canadian airline; a delayed bag on an international itinerary needs a written complaint within 21 days of getting it back; a domestic delayed bag is judged “as soon as possible” inside the airline’s own tariff limit, and court action follows a longer clock.
Baggage claim deadlines
Situation | Deadline |
|---|---|
Damaged baggage: report to the airline | 7 days from receiving it |
Delayed baggage, international itinerary: written complaint | 21 days from receiving it |
Delayed baggage, domestic: process governed by the tariff | "As soon as possible", within the tariff's own limit |
Bag not returned: treated as lost | After 21 days; then claim as soon as possible |
Court action for a lost or damaged bag | 2 years |
Source: Montreal Convention art. 31(2)-(4), art. 35(1); CTA, Compensation for lost, damaged and delayed baggage — protection-passager-passenger.otc-cta.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-22.
The 7-day and 21-day complaint windows run from the day you receive the bag; the 2-year court limit runs from the arrival, or the date the aircraft ought to have arrived. A bag not returned within 21 days is treated as lost outright, which moves it from the delayed-baggage rules to the lost-baggage compensation above. The 2-year court deadline comes from the Convention itself, separate from the CTA complaint route covered next.
Article 31 sets the complaint windows without reference to how fast the airline answers your Property Irregularity Report, so a slow reply is a reason to put your complaint in writing sooner, not to wait.
Diarise the day you got your bag back and count the 7-day and 21-day windows from that date; put every complaint in writing.
#What if the airline refuses your baggage claim?
30 days is how long the airline has to resolve your written baggage claim before you can complain to the Canadian Transportation Agency. File with the Agency once that window passes, and mediation must then start no later than the 30th day after you file.
Source: Canada Transportation Act s.85.04(1)(d), 85.05-85.07(3) — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
Send your baggage claim to the airline in writing first, with your Property Irregularity Report, receipts and the fees you paid. If 30 days pass with no resolution, the same escalation route used for any APPR claim applies: a complaint resolution officer mediates, starting no later than day 30 after filing, and an order follows no later than day 60 after mediation starts if there is no agreement. The full walkthrough, including the official complaint form, sits at how to file a CTA complaint; this page does not repeat it.
This route runs alongside, not instead of, the deadlines above: filing a CTA complaint about a refused baggage claim does not extend the 7-day or 21-day windows for reporting the problem to the airline in the first place, so both clocks need watching at once.
Send your baggage claim in writing, mark the date, and open a CTA complaint the day the 30-day window closes if nothing has been resolved.
Not your situation? See UK261, EU261 or, for US federal rules, the US DOT hub; work out which law fits.
US federal rules, the General information, not legal advice. For your specific case: the Canadian Transportation Agency or a lawyer.
#Sources
- Air Passenger Protection Regulations (SOR/2019-150), s.23 - laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-22.
- Carriage by Air Act, s.2(2.1), Sch. VI - laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-22.
- Canadian Transportation Agency, Compensation for lost, damaged and delayed baggage - protection-passager-passenger.otc-cta.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-22.
- Canadian Transportation Agency, Lost, damaged or delayed baggage - protection-passager-passenger.otc-cta.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-22.
- Canadian Transportation Agency, Baggage requirements for domestic services: a guide - otc-cta.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-22.
- Canada Transportation Act, ss.85.04(1)(d), 85.05-85.07 - laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.
- Montreal Convention 1999, arts. 17, 22, 31, 35 - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15.
- ICAO, 2024 revised limits of liability under the Montreal Convention (art. 24) - icao.int, checked 2026-09-15.