Notification to air carriers of upward revision of the limits of liability governed by the Montreal Convention
Effective December 28, 2024, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will increase the liability limits under the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (Montreal Convention) in respect to passenger death and injury, passenger delay and lost, damaged or delayed baggage and cargo shipments.
Please refer to Annex A, which reflects the new revised limits.
Tariff Amendments Required
The Air Transportation Regulations (ATR) require air carriers to set out the limits of liability respecting passengers and goods in their respective tariffs. As a result of the change to the liability limits in the Montreal Convention, air carriers’ must update these revised levels in their tariffs. Air carriers’ must file the revised international tariffs for international services.
Air carriers must apply the new limits as of December 28, 2024
On July 15, 2019, the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) provisions relating to baggage came into effect. These provisions apply the same rules and liability limits for lost and damaged baggage for domestic services as those set out in the Montreal Convention for international air travel. All air carriers offering domestic services must update their domestic tariffs to reflect these new liability limits. For delayed baggage, the Montreal Convention does not apply. Air carriers must set out their liability limits and related conditions in their domestic tariffs as the ATR requires.
Montreal Convention
The Montreal Convention came into force on November 4, 2003, for international carriage between Canada and countries that have ratified the Convention. The Montreal Convention has the force of law for most international carriage to and from Canada under the Carriage by Air Act.
Articles 21 and 22 of the Montreal Convention establish the liability limits of the air carrier for damages concerning the carriage of passengers, baggage and cargo. Article 24 of the Montreal Convention provides that ICAO will review the liability limits at five-year intervals to determine whether the liability limits need to be revised for inflation.
For further information:
Canadian Transportation Agency
Gatineau, QC J8X 3G9
- Tel.:
- 1-888-222-2592
- TTY:
- 1-800-669-5575
- Web:
- www.otc-cta.gc.ca
- E-mail:
- info@otc-cta.gc.ca
Annex A
| Event | Original Limit | Limit As of Dec 19, 2019 until Dec 27, 2024 |
New Limit As of Dec 28, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| In the case of destruction, loss, damage or delay in relation to the carriage of cargo (Article 22, paragraph 3) | 17 SDRs per kilo |
22 SDRs per kilo |
26 SDRs per kilo (Approx. $48 CAD) |
| In the case of destruction, loss, damage or delay with respect to baggage (Article 22, paragraph 2) | 1,000 SDRs for each passenger |
1,288 SDRs for each passenger |
1,519 SDRs for each passenger (Approx. $2,780 CAD) |
| In relation to damage caused by delay in the carriage of persons (Article 22, paragraph 1) | 4,150 SDRs for each passenger |
5,346 SDRs for each passenger |
6,303 SDRs for each passenger (Approx. $11,534 CAD) |
| For damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury of a passenger (for the first tier Article 21, paragraph 1) | 100,000 SDRs for each passenger |
128,821 SDRs for each passenger |
151,880 SDRs for each passenger (Approx. $277,940 CAD) |
Special Drawing Rights (SDR) is a form of international money, created by the International Monetary Fund, and defined as a weighted average of various convertible currencies.
On December 4, 2024, 1 SDR equals 1.83 Canadian dollars.
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