Guide · updated 2026-11-07

Filing a CTA complaint after the airline says no

The Canadian Transportation Agency handles air travel complaints that passengers and airlines cannot resolve directly. The order of steps matters, and so does what you attach.

Before the CTA: claim with the airline

1. Write to the airline within one year of the disruption. State the flight, the date, the arrival delay, the amount you are claiming, and ask for the reason for the disruption in writing if you do not already have it.
2. Ask specifically for the aircraft originally assigned to your flight, the aircraft at the time of cancellation, the time of any change, and the nature of any defect.
3. Wait 30 days. The airline must pay or explain why it believes nothing is owed.

Filing with the CTA

If the airline refuses, or does not answer within 30 days, you can make a complaint through the CTA's air travel complaints service. Airlines are required to tell passengers about this recourse.

What to have ready:

• Your booking, boarding passes and the airline's messages about the disruption, including the stated reason.
• Your written claim to the airline and its reply (or proof that 30 days passed without one).
• Your arrival delay, calculated against the original scheduled arrival.
• Any evidence about the aircraft: the record check below shows the aircraft recorded on your flight and what it did in the hours after your scheduled departure, with timestamps labelled scheduled, gate departure or wheels-up.

Keep the complaint factual. The CTA decides; your job is to show what happened and what you asked the airline, with dates.

What we do and do not do

FlightWitness prepares factual evidence from public flight records and, for a flat $29, ready-to-send documents: a compensation letter with the amount that applies, a disclosure request to the airline, and a CTA complaint draft. You submit everything yourself and keep all of any compensation. We do not represent passengers before the airline or the CTA and we do not give legal advice.