Under a ruling made a year ago in the European Court of Justice, it was held that as well as refunds and assistance being offered to passengers subject to long delays, airlines must also pay compensation, unless the delay was due to “exceptional circumstances”.
This ruling led to airlines having to set up websites to facilitate such compensation claims and it was initially thought that they would be inundated with so many that this would impact on ticket prices. As the claims process has been made so ostensibly easy the vast majority of passengers do not go through solicitors, but direct via the airlines own claims systems, believing valid claims are automatically be processed and compensation awarded.
However, recent figures show that only 2% of claimants have been successful as, apparently, airlines allege that 98% of the claims were caused by ‘exceptional circumstances'.
Clifton Ingram Solicitors have just dealt successfully with a claim made for five clients who were originally denied such compensation and where the airline originally raised every conceivable and probably routine defence. However our Dispute Resolution team set out the legal position to the airline the matter was swiftly concluded in favour of our clients.
If you have a claim, or have had one dismissed, it is probably worth passing the details by a dispute resolution solicitor to see if they can help you put together a robust and legally sound argument to the airlines so that you get the compensation you are duly owed.