zak Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 From the Telegraph Air passengers to get compensation if delayed, EU court rules Plane passengers who are delayed by more than three hours will get compensation from their airlines, the European Union’s highest court has ruled. By James Hall, Consumer Affairs Editor7:30AM BST 24 Oct 20129 Comments The ruling by the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg said passengers who reach their final destination three hours or more after the scheduled arrival time can claim fixed compensation from the airline, unless the delay is caused by “extraordinary circumstances” such as a strike or bad weather. Mechanical problems with an aeroplane do not constitute extraordinary circumstances, the court ruled. Passengers on flights starting or ending in the EU are entitled to between €250 (£206) and €600 (£488) for delayed or cancelled flights under the rules. The ruling confirms a 2009 verdict by the court, which said that under EU law passengers whose flights are delayed have the same rights to compensation as passengers whose fights are cancelled. The court was asked to clarify its 2009 guidance in light of two cases involving some of Europe’s biggest airlines. In one of the cases, the International Air Transport Association, British Airways, easyJet and TUI Travel challenged the Civil Aviation Authority after it rejected their request to be exempted from paying for flight delays. The second case involved the German airline Lufthansa, which was being sued by passengers after a flight delay of more than 24 hours. In both cases judges sought advice from the EU court on exactly what compensation is due. The court ruled yesterday: “Where passengers reach their final destination three hours or more after the scheduled arrival time, they may claim fixed compensation from the airline, unless the delay is caused by extraordinary circumstances.” The Civil Aviation Authority welcomed the ruling and said it “provides clarity for consumers”. Iain Osborne, its director of regulatory policy, said: “Every year around 200 million passengers travel on two million flights to and from the UK, with the vast majority experiencing no problems. “However, when something does go wrong, there are regulations in place to protect travellers, and the CAA is ready to ensure companies abide by them. Today’s judgment from the Court of Justice of the European Union offers much needed clarity for passengers, the airline industry and the CAA about when compensation must be paid following delays.” In its ruling, the court said that extraordinary circumstances were those “which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken, namely circumstances beyond the actual control of the air carrier”. So we now get Compensation for flights delayed over 3 hours! The below website claims that if you pay them a membership fee of £21.00 then you will gain compensation for previous. It looks dodgy to me but was recommended in the metro this morning, which although i dont trust the Metro, i cant imagine them not checking a website before suggesting it. http://www.flight-delayed.co.uk "passengers whose flights are delayed have the same rights to compensation as passengers whose fights are cancelled." Im not sure that's a good thing, mean a lot more flights will just be cancelled instead of delayed, as it would be the airlines cheaper option Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drat01 Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 RyanAir are probably now introducing a supplement to allow for this. If this is to become the norm expect a whole series of extra fees and rises to claw back the money and a bit more Have a look at this article from which Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colhint Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Once again I agree with Drat. I also think they will now review flight times. Maybe the 1 hour flight to Paris will all of a sudden become a scheduled 2.5 hour flight, with the pilot somehow able to make up the time due to incredibly favourable wind conditions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drat01 Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 The other thing they could do is to make you check in some ridiculous time before and then board you "early" . Also there may be now more inclination to cancel flights because of the knock on of having planes out of synch with schedules causing further financial penalties Prats like Walsh and O'Leary will have many ways around paying anything, as said can see them coming up with schemes to create even more money for themselves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colhint Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 talking of O'leary I still love the story of him in a bar asking for a guiness, the barman says "sure thats 50p" O'leary replies "thats cheap" to which the barman adds "would you like a glass with your pint" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 RyanAir can go **** themselves with the shittiest stick going, and all die in the most agonising, drawn-out manner possible. I may have had a bad experience one time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RunRickyRun Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Travel West Midlands will owe me about £2m if this is applied to buses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Naturally they'll all try and 'adapt' in order to get round it. Ryanair are scum, a real back alley job, although they reckon that 90% of their flights arrive on time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted October 24, 2012 Moderator Share Posted October 24, 2012 I do believe BMIBaby (who I've never even considered flying with since) now owe myself and blandy (plus my missus and daughter) some money. 12 hour delay to Brussels due to an aircraft malfunction (they said), they also claimed this was an extraordinary reason... Time to get digging for paperwork... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted October 24, 2012 Moderator Share Posted October 24, 2012 Ryanair are scum, a real back alley job, although they reckon that 90% of their flights arrive on time. They do, here's how they do it. The flight time is always longer than necessary. RyanAir advertise their flight time from Liverpool to Dublin as around an hour, in reality it takes little over 30 mins, allowing them to take off half an hour late and still be on time. To also be fair to budget airlines, it's not actually in their interests to be late taking off most of the time, it costs them money for parking at the airport. (You should see how quickly EasyJet turn round a flight at Nice Airport - whose "parking charges" are astronomical because the richest people in the world park their aircraft there all summer). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drat01 Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 I do believe BMIBaby (who I've never even considered flying with since) now owe myself and blandy (plus my missus and daughter) some money. 12 hour delay to Brussels due to an aircraft malfunction (they said), they also claimed this was an extraordinary reason... Time to get digging for paperwork... No longer in business. Willy (I only love London so therefore will kill off flights from anywhere else in the UK) Walsh closed them down as part of BA's purchase of BMI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted October 24, 2012 Moderator Share Posted October 24, 2012 No longer in business. Willy (I only love London so therefore will kill off flights from anywhere else in the UK) Walsh closed them down as part of BA's purchase of BMI that legally matters not a jot, someone still owns the company and It wasn't them it was FlyBE anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetrees Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 They do, here's how they do it. The flight time is always longer than necessary. RyanAir advertise their flight time from Liverpool to Dublin as around an hour, in reality it takes little over 30 mins, allowing them to take off half an hour late and still be on time. To also be fair to budget airlines, it's not actually in their interests to be late taking off most of the time, it costs them money for parking at the airport. (You should see how quickly EasyJet turn round a flight at Nice Airport - whose "parking charges" are astronomical because the richest people in the world park their aircraft there all summer). In fairness all airlines schedule long block times, normally to cover long taxi times at some of the major airports, and for the shorter ATC slot delays, which are quite frequent. As far as I know Nice isn't particularly expensive. The low cost model of Easyjet, Ryanair, Wizz et al is based upon the Southwest Airlines model of getting them turned around as quickly as possible. (SW often achieve 20 minutes), so they try to turn around quickly at every destination. I don't like using Ryanair, but occasionally I do as sometimes obscure airports in Spain and Poland are right by where I need to be. I follow their rules and don't have a problem. In reality they are no worse than any other lo-co, they are just a bit more in your face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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