Airplane late or nailed to the ground: Find out if Air Transat owes him compensation
Airlines are faced with claims for compensation from their customers for airline delays in connection with air routes sold.
Regulation EC 261-2004 provides for almost automatic compensation for flight delays of more than three hours, the amount of which varies depending on the distance of the delayed flight. These amounts are set out in article 7 of the regulations. The same regulation also provides for assistance measures for passengers whose flights are delayed, canceled or overbooked.
The Court of Cassation recalled on March 8, 2012 (No. 11-10.226) that the assistance and compensation obligations provided for in regulation 261-2004 are the sole responsibility of the effective airline, that is to say say that which provided the canceled or delayed flight, and that the traveler can not ask the travel agency for compensation under article 7 of the regulations, but only compensation under the provisions of article L.211- 16 of the tourism code.
The processing of claims must therefore be carried out in several stages
– Check your eligibility for compensation
As a reminder, the regulation CE 261-2004 applies to all flights departing from a member state of the European Union, regardless of the company operating the flight, and only to flights carried out by European companies for flights from a third country and bound for a member state of the European Union.
Thus, if the flight comes from a third state and is operated by an extra-European company, it will not be subject to the regulations but only to the Montreal or Warsaw conventions, depending on the case, which conventions do not provide a scale of automatic compensation.
Prove the harm suffered: How to do it?
The first thing to do is to check whether the passenger provides proof of the delay, either by a delay certificate issued by Air Transat, or by producing boarding cards.
Remember that the delay is calculated according to the arrival date initially planned: a delay of three hours on departure will not necessarily give a delay of three hours on arrival.
When the flight has several sections, it is the time of arrival at the final destination that prevails: thus a delay of one hour at the departure causing the connection to be missed, can result in a delay of more than three hours at the arrival at the final destination.
The cause of the delay must then be verified by questioning the airline which made the flight; indeed, if the cause is external and constitutes an extraordinary circumstance, it can be exempt from responsibility and consequently, neither the Company, nor the agency will be held to compensate the passenger.
Unfavorable weather conditions, the strike of the personnel managing air traffic, the closure of the airport by the authorities, an attack, the collision of the plane with a bird or a construction machine, can constitute foreign causes exempting from responsibility .
However, the failure of a reactor, the need to find a replacement crew, the strike by company personnel, do not constitute extraordinary circumstances exempt from liability.
Before claiming compensation from Air Transat, you must first check whether his case is covered
Very often, passengers claim not only the amount of the minimum compensation fixed by EC regulation 261-2004, but also additional damage (loss of one night, non-pecuniary damage). It remains possible.
The minimum compensation is fixed by EC regulation 261-2004 and varies from € 250 to € 600 depending on the distance that the delayed or canceled flight had to fly.
When the passenger invokes this compensation, he can only do so with regard to the airline but without having to prove the reality and the quantum of his damage. He must only prove that he boarded the flight in question and the delay in the absence of an exemption. If his damage exceeds the minimum compensation and on condition that he proves it, he can ask for a higher additional compensation.
Let’s take another example: A passenger takes another flight from Paris to New York which, unluckily, is delayed by more than three hours when the doors open upon arrival.
He loses a paid night at the hotel for € 250 and estimates his non-pecuniary damage at € 100, for a total of € 350.