To protect travellers and arm them with the necessary information to claim compensation for flight delays and cancellations in the EU, the European Parliament and Council of the EU have established Regulation 261/2004. Both agents and travellers should familiarise themselves with the Flight Compensation Regulation to be best equipped to handle complicated situations arising from disrupted flight bookings.
Passengers whose flights are delayed should be offered food and drinks. If the flight is delayed overnight, the passenger should also be offered accommodation. Every passenger has the right to claim compensation if the air carrier did not inform them on time for the delay, according to Schengen Visa Info.
As the regulation only applies to flights that are connected to the EU, only the passengers of the following flights can make a claim:
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Flights within the EU operated by an EU or non-EU airline
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Flights arriving in the EU from outside the EU operated by an EU airline
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Flights departing from the EU to a non-EU country operated by an EU or non-EU airline
AirHelp is an online tool useful for checking if a flight qualifies for compensation under these rules.
Anyone whose flight was delayed for more than three hours has the right to claim compensation, which ranges from €250 (R4 200) to €600 (R10 000) per passenger.
The first step should always be to complain to the airline in order to seek compensation for a delayed or cancelled flight. Once two months have passed, if the client has not heard a response from the airline, or does not find the response satisfactory, a complaint can be sent to the National Enforcement Body in the state where the incident took place.
An EU national in particular also has the option of using out-of-court bodies like conciliators, mediators, arbitrators, the ombudsman, or complaints boards for legal advice.
Of course, there is also always the option of going to court if, and as soon as, the airline in question indicates that compensation is not possible but if the client believes they are still owed compensation for their disrupted flight.
The time limit in which passengers can claim compensation, from the date of the flight, is:
Other EU countries have their own differing time limits, which agents would need to check.
If a flight leaves on time but reaches its destination more than three hours later than planned, this also counts as a delay.
However, compensation cannot be claimed if the destination country is reached less than three hours late, even if the flight left its original country three hours late.
