HALIFAX — A Halifax man who advocates on behalf of airline passengers argued in Federal Court on Monday that even though he is not overweight himself, he should have the right to file a complaint about a carrier's "discriminatory" practice of bumping obese travellers.
Gabor Lukacs told the three-member panel that the Canadian Transportation Agency should hear his complaint about the way Delta Air Lines asks large passengers to move to another seat, take a later flight or buy an additional seat.
"The airline is discriminating based on size," he said in court. "It could be eye colour....It's a slippery slope."
The agency dismissed his initial complaint in November 2014, finding that Lukacs had no private or public standing in the matter because he wasn't directly affected by it.
"Because what we are protecting here are public and societal interests, not individual interests, it doesn't matter whether the complainant is me or someone who is actually large," he said outside court in Halifax.
"The question of who the complainant is should be utterly irrelevant because it affects everybody."
He referenced the increase in baggage fees that started with one airline and then was adopted by others.
Lukacs said dismissing his complaint simply because the issue didn't affect him personally was akin to disregarding someone's concerns over contaminated food just because they weren't made sick by it.
He said he has a demonstrated expertise in the area of passenger issues, having filed more than two dozen successful complaints with the agency and, as a result, bringing about improvements to the industry.
He says the 46 mentions of his name in agency decisions show that he has a "long-standing, real and continuing interest in the rights of air passengers."
The panel reserved its decision to a later date.
A lawyer for Delta declined to comment outside the court.
