The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that aviation companies are making the pitch to Ottawa for looser rules around customer compensation ahead of an overhaul to passenger rights guidelines. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe says that in submissions and meetings, industry lobbyists warned Canada's transport regulator that sweeping reforms announced earlier this year will put travellers' safety at risk and drain carriers of cash. The federal legislation appears to eliminate a loophole through which airlines have denied customers compensation for flight delays or cancellations when they were required for safety purposes -- an exemption the sector wants restored so pilots do not feel pressured to choose between flying defective planes and costing their employer money. "We want our pilots to be entirely free from any financial consideration when they take a safety-related decision," WestJet boss Alexis von Hoensbroech said in a video chat from Ottawa this week, where he was meeting with federal ministers on the reforms. In the European Union, however, where rules and precedents comparable to the impending passenger rights charter are in place, flight safety remains uncompromised, advocates say.