Deadline Extended

On April 16, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) passed legislation to harmonize interline baggage rules with the US DOT with a compliance deadline of Oct. 1, which ACTA reports has now been extended to April 1, 2015.

The new legislation forces air carriers to provide specific information to the consumer about all of the factors that may cause the fee for a carry-on bag and the first/second checked bag to vary.

This new information must be included in addition to indicating what the standard baggage allowances and charges are applicable to the passenger for the first and second pieces of checked baggage and carry-on baggage. Under the new legislation this information must appear on the summary page at the end of an online purchase on the carrier’s web site and must also appear on a passenger’s e-ticket. At the time this decision was passed ,the CTA stated that it expected carriers to apply this approach for transportation to, from and within Canada for tickets purchased on and after Oct. 1.

With a strict deadline pending, ACTA, as a contributing stakeholder with CTA on industry related matters and travel tech members (Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport) aligned to ask for an extension of the initial deadline due to the fact that the changes were technical in nature and that the timelines were to aggressive to complete the software development required to comply.

On Aug. 26, the CTA extended the deadline to April 1, 2015.

“We are very pleased with this ruling and want to thank the CTA for considering the concerns of the stakeholders and extending the deadline,” commented ACTA president David McCaig.