Air passenger rights in Canada: the APPR and your wider protections

Delays, cancellations and overbookings happen on Canadian routes just as they do anywhere else, and Canada has its own rulebook for them: the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, better known as the APPR. If your flight is to, from or within Canada, these rules set out what the airline owes you. The catch is that claiming flight delay compensation under Canadian law is rarely as straightforward as it sounds on paper. And if your trip begins at a UK airport, an even stronger set of protections may apply to you instead.

Here's how the APPR works, where it falls short, and how to claim under whichever law leaves you better off.

Canada brought in the Air Passenger Protection Regulations in 2019 to set a baseline for how airlines must treat passengers when a flight goes wrong. The rules are overseen by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) and apply to every flight to, from or within Canada, connecting flights included, whatever airline you booked and wherever you bought your ticket.

The APPR spreads its protections across five main areas:

The regulations sort airlines into large and small carriers. A large carrier is one that has flown two million passengers or more in each of the previous two calendar years – a group that covers most of the big names you'd take to Canada, including Air Canada, WestJet, and Air Transat. Large carriers face tougher obligations and pay higher compensation, while small carriers owe less and carry fewer duties.

But how much protection you actually receive hinges on why your flight was disrupted, and that's exactly where the APPR starts to get complicated.

Under the APPR, a delayed or cancelled flight can entitle you to compensation, but only when the disruption was within the airline's control and was not classed as a safety measure. One more condition applies: you must have been given fewer than 14 days' notice before your scheduled departure.

How much you can claim, for delays and cancellations alike, comes down to two things: how late you finally reach your destination, and whether you flew with a large or a small carrier.

These sums are fixed in Canadian dollars (large carrier: CA$400, CA$700 and CA$1,000; small carrier: CA$125, CA$250 and CA$500). The pound amounts are approximate and move with the exchange rate.

An airline may offer you a voucher or travel credit instead of cash. You are under no obligation to accept it, and if you do, it has to be worth more than the cash sum and carry no expiry date.

Do you qualify for APPR compensation?

To have a valid claim under the APPR, all of the following need to be true:

Tick every box and you could still walk away empty-handed, thanks to the one provision airlines reach for more than any other: the safety exemption.

Here is why it carries so much weight. Under the APPR, an airline owes you no compensation if a disruption was within its control but required for safety. Because almost any operational decision in aviation can be cast as safety-related, from a mechanical snag to crew duty limits, this single carve-out hands airlines broad grounds to say no. In practice, it is the biggest barrier between Canadian passengers and the money they are owed.

Compensation grabs the headlines, but the APPR asks more of airlines than that. Here is the rest of what they owe you when a flight goes wrong.

On paper, the APPR reads like a straightforward deal for passengers. In practice, securing the compensation is another matter, and two features built into the regulations explain why.

The "required for safety" get-out clause

The APPR files every disruption into one of three boxes: within the airline's control, within the airline's control but required for safety, and outside the airline's control. Compensation is owed in the first box only.

The trouble is how much the middle box can hold. A mechanical fault, a crew bumping up against duty-hour limits, a knock-on delay from earlier in the day: airlines can badge a great many disruptions as safety-related, and once they do, all they owe you is a rebooking.

This is where the APPR parts company with British and European rules. Under UK261 and EC 261, an airline has to show that a disruption was down to extraordinary circumstances genuinely beyond its control, and a routine technical fault usually does not clear that bar. Their exemption is narrower, so far more disruptions stay eligible for compensation.

Taking your claim to the CTA

If the airline turns you down or simply goes quiet, your next move is a complaint to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), which steps in as a referee between you and the carrier. The snag is time: the CTA has been working through a heavy backlog of complaints, so a decision can take many months. The agency publishes its current timelines on its own website.

Fly to or from Canada and part of your trip may sit under stronger protections than the APPR. A flight that leaves the UK, or one operated by a UK or EU airline, can bring UK261 or EC 261 into play, both of which tend to offer broader eligibility, a narrower set of exemptions and stronger enforcement.

Which leg of your journey is covered?

Most UK travellers to Canada book a return, and the two halves are not treated alike. The outbound flight, leaving a UK airport, is covered by UK261 whichever airline you are on, from British Airways to Air Canada. The return is more conditional: UK261 reaches the inbound leg only when a UK or EU airline operates it, such as British Airways or Virgin Atlantic, whereas on a Canadian carrier like Air Canada or WestJet the journey home falls under the APPR instead. Which of the two governs each leg is worth pinning down, because the APPR and UK261 are far from equally easy to claim under.

How the APPR and UK261 compare

The headline sums are, in fact, broadly comparable: the APPR tops out at around £540 (CA$1,000) and UK261 at £520. So the difference that counts is not the figure you might receive but how realistically you can secure it. Set side by side, the two look like this:

UK261 and EC 261 are the regimes most British travellers will come across, but they are not the only ones. Depending on your route, the rules of other countries may apply too:

Not sure which law covers your flight? Enter your flight details and we'll check, free of charge, which passenger rights apply to your journey and whether you can claim.

Which route you take depends on the law your flight falls under. A claim made under the APPR follows one path; a claim under UK261 or another international rule follows quite a different one.

If your flight is covered by the APPR

When a disruption qualifies under the APPR and was within the airline's control (and not put down to safety), you claim directly from the airline. The process runs in three steps:

1. Put your claim to the airline in writing within one year of the disruption, with your booking reference, flight details and an account of what happened. The airline then has 30 days to reply.

2. If it refuses or stays silent, take the matter to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), which acts as a go-between for you and the carrier.

3. Wait for the CTA's decision. Once your complaint reaches a resolution officer, the CTA aims to decide within 90 days, but the backlog means it can take a long time before your file gets there. The agency publishes its current timelines on its website.

AirHelp does not currently handle APPR-only claims, so a disruption covered solely by Canadian rules is one you would need to pursue yourself, following the steps above.

If UK261 or another law applies

When your flight falls under UK261, EC 261 or a comparable law, the process tends to be quicker and more clearly defined. It runs broadly as follows:

1. Put your claim to the airline first. If it rejects the claim or has not given a final answer within eight weeks, you can take it further.

2. Escalate to a CAA-approved ADR scheme, such as AviationADR or CEDR, whose ruling is binding on member airlines. If the airline belongs to no scheme, take the matter to the CAA's Passenger Advice and Complaints Team instead.

3. If none of that resolves it, the small claims route stays open.

This is the point where AirHelp can take the work off your hands. We check your eligibility, deal with the airline and, if it comes to it, pursue the claim through the courts, all on a no win, no fee basis, so there is nothing to lose by checking.