Canada's commissioner of official languages has singled out the Halifax airport for its poor performance in providing services in French.

The Halifax Robert L. Stanfield International Airport has the worst record among 37 institutions surveyed, according to the commissioner's first report to Parliament.

In his report released Tuesday, Graham Fraser said there are not enough French signs at the airport, and on several occasions, no one could help inspectors when they asked for service in French.

Halifax airport spokesman Peter Spurway said officials take the report seriously, but defended the airport.

"In the surveys that we do, both in the proactive and reactive, we will receive less than a handful of complaints and comments about French language service in the airport of the tens of thousands of people that we talk to," said Spurway.

The language commissioner's office said it has received repeated complaints from people in the Acadian community about the lack of French services at the airport.