High court suspends airline compensation for delays

THE UK High Court has suspended UK air passengers’ rights to force airlines to pay compensation for long flight delays within the UK.

Last November the European Court of Justice (ECJ) passed a ruling giving passengers the right to compensation for long delays and not just cancellations. However UK airlines like British Airways and EasyJet as well as IATA opposed the move and called on the High Court to try and convince it to ask the ECJ to look at the issue again. The High Court has now referred the matter back to the ECJ for examination and UK courts will not hear any more cases until the ECJ rules again.

Until last November, European rules awarded airline passengers cash compensation if their flights were cancelled, but not if they were delayed. If passengers were delayed the airlines were only required to offer meals, refreshments, two free telephone calls and, for an overnight delay, hotel accommodation and transfers to and from the hotel. However when the ECJ effectively re-wrote the original 2004 regulations, passengers whose flights were delayed were entitled to be treated as if their flights had been cancelled. This meant cash compensation should be awarded, in addition to their other rights, if delays lasted longer than three hours. Since November some airlines have been paying up when delayed passengers have asked for compensation, while others have tried to stall and avoid paying.

Judgment on the matter is expected to take about two years but according to a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman a UK passenger can still make a claim for delay compensation in another EU country if an EU airline was involved.

*What are your thoughts on this? Send us your comments by replying to the editor...