As you're aware, in 2020, three months after the APPR came into force, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a collapse in global air travel. As the events of the pandemic unfolded, it became clear that there was a gap in Canada's air passenger protection framework relating to the situation where flights were cancelled or delayed for reasons outside of the airline's control and there was no possibility of a passenger completing their itinerary within a reasonable time. Because the law did not require airlines to include refund provisions in their tariffs for such situations, what a passenger was entitled to depended on the particular tariff of the airline.
Given the implications of this gap in the framework, on December 18, 2020, the Minister of Transport issued a direction to the agency providing the authority to develop a regulation respecting the airline's obligations to a passenger in case of flight cancellation or lengthy delays due to situations outside their control that prevent them from ensuring that passengers complete their itinerary within a reasonable time frame.
The final regulations amending the APPR were published in part 2 of Canada Gazette on June 22, 2022, and came into force on September 8, 2022. The new regulations require airlines to provide a passenger affected by a cancellation or a lengthy delay due to a situation outside the airline's control with a confirmed reservation on the next available flight that's operated by them or a partner airline leaving within 48 hours of the departure time indicated on the passenger's original ticket.
If the airline cannot provide the confirmed reservation within a 48-hour period, it must provide the passenger with a choice, a refund or a re-booking. A refund must be provided within 30 days.
Following the coming into force of APPR, we saw a significant influx of complaints, with an incoming monthly complaint volume that was quadrupled. To put this in perspective, in 2018-19, we received about 7,600 complaints. During the year that APPR came into force, 2019-20, we received 19,000 complaints, even though the APPR was only fully enforced for three months prior to the onset of the pandemic.
More recently, as air travel volumes have rebounded and the air industry has grappled with the speed of recovery, we've witnessed a big jump in complaints, which have only recently started to slow down. While we had been receiving an average of 1,500 complaints per month in April, May and June of this year, complaint volumes jumped to more than 3,000 in July and 5,700 in August.
Despite processing more complaints than before, in 2021-22, we processed over 15,000 complaints, which is more than three times the number of complaints that we were processing annually before the APPR and the pandemic. We still had a significant number of complaints, and that has led to a backlog.
We're working on addressing the backlog by further increasing our complaint processing capacity through identifying and implementing procedural improvements, modernizing our processes and adding capacity where possible.
Finally, although today's study is focused on the APPR, I should mention that the agency has a key human rights mandate for accessibility of the federally regulated transportation system. I would note that, when we receive cases regarding accessibility, they are prioritized and, as a result, we have no backlog in this area.
Thank you, Chair. We'd be happy to respond to any questions.