British Airways has been hit with a compensation claim from a group of 23 passengers affected by a flight cancellation in March.

Lavelle Coleman, the law firm for airline consumer rights website EUclaim, has launched a claim for compensation under Regulation 261 in the Uxbridge County Court on behalf of the passengers who were impacted by the cancellation of BA 0502 from Heathrow to Lisbon on March 14.

EUclaim says it currently represents several hundred claimants who have suffered flight cancellations or long delays whilst travelling with BA.

"BA has produced numerous reasons for cancellations and for the non payment of their passengers' claims - these range from insufficient cabin crew and staff sickness to technical problems,” said EUclaim CEO Hendrik Noorderhaven.

“Quite frankly these are, in most cases, not extraordinary circumstances and the airline is simply hiding behind these excuses. We have repeatedly asked BA to give the real reasons behind the cancellations but they have refused to do so.”

EUclaim believes that each year UK passengers are losing out on £130 m of unclaimed compensation.

"Sadly, passengers are unaware of their rights - they go online to claim compensation from an airline and their claim is rejected - most give up - it's just too expensive to take legal action as an individual,” added Noorderhaven.

"We started EUclaim so that we could make passengers aware of their consumer rights and have already helped thousands receive their lawful compensation.”

A BA spokesman said the airline meets the European regulation guidelines and would be defending the claim by EUclaims's lawyers.

EUclaim was featured last night on Channel 4's Dispatches: The Trouble with British Airways, under which BA also came under fire for its lost baggage record.

The programme said BA has mislaid more bags per passenger than any of its major European rivals since 2006.

But the BA spokesman pointed out that the airline volunteers to disclose its lost baggage figures, while many of its rivals, including bmi British Midland and Virgin Atlantic, do not.

He also criticised the programme makers for failing to stress the sheer size of BA’s network and the fact that it operates from Heathrow, one of the world’s most congested airports.

"We operate 250,000 flights a year with 33 million customers. Of course, as with all major global airlines, looking after this number if people, there will be occasions when our performance is not as high as we would like," he said.


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By Bev Fearis