Travellers warned to 'expect some challenges' around March break

With the nightmare of travel around the Christmas holidays fresh in many people's minds, travellers can't be blamed for fearing the prospect of a repeat at March break.

"Expect some challenges" next month, said Martin Taller, a professor in hospitality and tourism management at Algonquin College,"but fewer than we had before."

Taller said the strong resurgence intravel since pandemic health measures loosened has put a lot of strain on the industry.

"The issues that folks experienced over the last few months have been rather unique," he said.

"There has been an upsurge in travel and an unusual time for the airline industry and the tour operators to handle the kind ofresurgence of travel back in Canada."

In an emailed statement, Krista Kealey, vice-president of communications with the Ottawa International Airport Authority, said it's still a little early to know how busy flights might be, but preparations for March break are underway.

"We started looking at contingency plans for parking lotslast week. We want to be ready with backup if any particular lot (or all of them) fills up," Kealey wrote.

Contingency plans questioned

John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, agreed there is a risk of a repeat of some of the problems that hampered travellers around Christmas.

Lawford said airlines have contingency plans for bad weather, but he questioned how robust those plans are.

He also raised concerns that smaller carriers don't have to follow the same regulations as big airlines when it comes to their obligations to passengers.

Taller said the smaller carriers often only have the planes and other equipment to operate their scheduled flights, which can present problems when things don't go according to plan.

"There's always a rotation going on, and when the weather gets bad or when there's a mechanical problem, everything gets complicated and everythinggets lost and people get delayed," he said.

"Clearly there's been some challenges for those carriers, especially the smaller ones, inoperating and that's a problem that they have to recover from."

Time for new legislation?

To prevent some of the problems people were dealing with at the holidays, Lawford said, Canada should adopt the same regulations European airlines have to follow.

"In Canada we have this definition of flight cancellation that lets the airlines change schedules and not call it a cancellation," he said.

"That is very frustrating to people after they have a confirmed ticket and they should be getting compensation if that happens."

He said the biggest difference in Europe when it comes to passenger rights and regulations is that travellers get compensation for flight delays or cancellations unless there are "extraordinary circumstances."

"That's like volcanic eruptions [or] earthquakes," he said.

"It's not,'Oh, we didn't have enough aircraft or it was cold that day.' Those are normal operations of the airline that they should expect."

Lawford said that even though March break is coming soon, the Liberal cabinet could make regulations that would immediately apply.

He also said people should come up with an alternateplan if they are travelling over March break.

"Think about contingency plans if they know relatives at the far end," he said. "You've got to think about these things now,and it shouldn't be that way."

Taller said people travelling at March break should make sure to pack essentials in their carry-on like medication,a change of clothes and a child's favourite stuffed animal.