Backdated delay claims allowed

The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment in the Dawson vs Thomson Airways case, confirming that flight delay compensation claims can now be made up to six years from the date of the flight.

The case centred on Thomson Airways flight BY5143 from London Gatwick to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. The flight, on Christmas Day 2005 was delayed by 6 hours and 26 minutes. Lord Justices Moore-Brick, Kitchin and Ryder dismissed the airline’s appeal and found in favour of Mr Dawson, ruling that consumers have six years to bring a flight delay claim in England and Wales under EU regulation 261/2004, in accordance with Section 9 of the Limitation Act 1980.

Flight delay law firm Bott & Co estimate the decision affects over 11 million passengers and is worth in excess of £4 billion.

This was the second case Bott & Co has won at the Court of Appeal in the space of eight days, the first being Mr Huzar’s case against Jet2.com (see BTN 16 June 2014) which found a technical problem is not an extraordinary circumstance and therefore airlines must still pay compensation under EU261.

Bott & Co’s free online calculator takes the Dawson and Huzar judgments into consideration to tell consumers if they have a valid flight delay claim.

www.bottonline.co.uk/flight-delay-compensation

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