Jet 2 in compensation row

A radical new way of handling flight-delay compensation claims is being put forward by Jet2 executive chairman Philip Meeson after he argued the present system is unnecessarily complicated.

Passengers on any airline to or from UK airports whose flights are delayed more than 3hr can claim compensation of up to €600 (£515) under EU law. But Meeson told The Sunday Times yesterday the system for obtaining the money is broken.

Instead, the paper reported, he wants a system under which individual flights would be assessed rather than the claim of each passenger, meaning if one passenger on a flight wins compensation for a delay, so would everyone on the same aircraft.

Meeson told the paper this would not only cut the cost of handling cases but produce a more robust system for dealing with complaints, with assessments carried out by a qualified third party who is an expert in aviation issues.

His views are a challenge to the Civil Aviation Authority, which The Sunday Times noted wants all airlines to join one of two voluntary complaints services called alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes.

Jet2, which recently took delivery of its 100th aircraft (BTN 28 January), is the only large airline that refuses to sign up to the two ADR schemes, which it claims are poorly run and bungle complaints.

www.jet2.com  

www.caa.co.uk

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