23 November 2009

EU: New air passenger compensation rights

Airline passengers who are delayed by more than three hours should get the same compensation as if their flights have been cancelled, European judges have ruled. The regulation provides that, in the event of cancellation of a flight, passengers are entitled to flat-rate compensation of between EUR 250 and EUR 600.
Airlines will be required not to cancel a flight unless it fits strict criteria set down in the new law.
The ruling stated: “Passengers on a flight which is cancelled at short notice have a right to compensation, even when they are re-routed by the airline on another flight, if they lose three hours or more in relation to the duration originally planned."
The judges said that a technical problem with an aircraft could not be regarded as an "extraordinary circumstance", unless the problem stemmed from events which "by their nature or origin are not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and are beyond its actual control".

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