Airline passenger rights

The Government has today (Monday 31 January) announced plans to strengthen airline passenger rights.

This comes amid calls for change from leading airlines and consumer groups and, it is claimed, made possible thanks to the UK’s departure from the EU.

These include considering the creation of a fairer compensation model for when domestic UK flights are delayed.

Based on the current compensation model used by rail and ferry customers, this will see a significant shift away from the current ‘set rate’ model. Passengers would instead be able to claim compensation based on the length of the flight delay and linked to cost of travel, rather than having to meet a certain threshold – which is currently a three hour delay.

The Government is also considering mandating all airlines to be part of the aviation ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution’ (ADR) scheme, which would give consumers a route for escalating certain complaints that cannot be settled between the consumer and airline, without needing to go to court.

In the current set up, there are two providers of ADR in the UK, and airlines can join voluntarily. Under the new proposals, all airlines would have to join the scheme, giving customers access to this dispute route regardless of who they fly with. This could help people who are struggling to get refunds when they are entitled to them.

www.gov.uk/government/latest/department-for-transport

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum

Andrew Sharp, United Kingdom

You may think it fair to have compensation based on what you paid for your flight when it's delayed by over three hours. I don't. A three hour delay on a domestic flight really mucks up a day: I want compensation, not just a refund of the fare I paid.

Richard Wiggins , UK

Before levelling compensation claims against the airline, you surely must have an effective industry measurement such as IATA Delay code structure which can identify “controllable delays” which the airline and it’s agencies may have been able to prevent and “uncontrolled delays” which are beyond the capability of the airline and its agencies to prevent delay (weather/ramp conditions etc). I recently received a delay -repay compensation from a railway company even though the delay was a passenger up the line committing suicide act on the line !! Why would railways pay out for “uncontrollable delays” and why would airlines not be able to better defend themselves against claims under the proposed new legislation ?