Court Ruling Set To Raise Airfares?

Since February of 2005, EC legislation has been in place that give the right to air passengers to be compensated if they are bumped off a flight, or suffer a delays. EC Regulation N° 261/04 allows compensation for being bumped from a flight of up to €600, depending on the distance involved. Passengers who are delayed are entitled to assistance, that takes the form of adequate food and drink, hotel accommodation if necessary, and the entitlement to make two telephone calls. The delay required before this assistance has to be given again depends upon distance.

An appeal launched by the airlines on the grounds that the regulation conflicts with the Montreal Convention, the global standard for passenger compensation. The airlines are also unhappy at the prospect of having to pay out as a result of circumstances beyon their control, such as security scares or bad weather. The appeal was not allowed, and so the airlines will be faced with the extra costs of implementing the regultion.

The estimated cost of complying with the legislation is expected to be in the region of 600 million euro, and it has been suggested that airfares will have to rise to recupperate these additional costs.

The airlines are not liable if they can show that the cancellation of the flight was caused by unavoidable exceptional circumstances even if all possible measures had been adopted. The fact that only a handfull of more than a thousand claims to date have been successfull, shows that this clause is being used.

We are aware of two cases involving flights to and from Fuerteventura Airport where the airlines involved have in one case supplied an allowance that was adequate to cover the cost of food and drink at an English Airport, and another where overnight accommodation was provided in Fuerteventura after a fault developed on the aircraft. This suggests that these airlines are applying the new rules in a fair way.

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