Airlines fight back against CAA accusations over flight delay claims

Aer Lingus, Jet2 and Wizz Air have been quick to dismiss accusations by the Civil Aviation Authority that they are breaching consumer law.

Jet2 and Wizz Air have gone so far as to criticise the CAA for making a public statement about its intention to take legal action against them without proper consultation.

The CAA issued a press statement on Saturday saying it was set to take legal action against Aer Lingus, Jet2 and Wizz Air for not coming into line with new regulations relating to the way they deal with passengers who suffer flight delays.

The rules have changed following two landmark legal cases – Huzar v Jet2.com and Dawson v Thomson.

The aviation body also said it had concerns about the way Ryanair is assessing some passenger claims.

But the airlines have now all issued statements rejecting the CAA’s claims.

Jet2.com said it has been paying compensation for disruption caused by technical faults in line with the landmark Huzar ruling and has already confirmed this to the CAA.

It insisted that airlines are entitled to limit to two years the period in which claims can be made by contractual limitations and said this has been upheld by the courts on a number of occasions.

It added: “No enforcement action has been taken. The CAA is obligated to consult wih jet2.com before considering enforcement action. This process has not started.

“Given the misapprehensions of the CAA, jet2.com expects that following the mandatory consultation process the CAA will not wish to take the matter any further. We would have preferred that the CAA had engaged with us properly before issuing this press release.”

Wizz Air spokesman Daniel de Carvalho said: “Sadly I am very disappointed to see the CAA’s PR campaign after the very same CAA has recently judged us as being ‘very good’ in our compliance, certainly because we assess each UK customer claim on a case-by-case basis and always in accordance with the established practice of UK courts.”

He said the airline was already re-assessing the ‘tens of cases’ where customers claimed compensation after flight disruptions caused by unforeseeable technical faults.

But he said Wizz Air was continuing to consider claims raised within two years after the flight disruption, claiming this was ‘in line with its general conditions of carriage agreed to by customers at the time of booking, an approach which has been upheld by the English courts’.

Aer Lingus said its procedures relating to the provision of information to customers affected by operational disruption are fully compliant with all the relevant regulations.

“We have provided a number of documents to the CAA in recent months to substantiate this point and we continue to engage with the CAA to address their concerns,” it said.

Ryanair said it complies fully with all EU261 legislation and deals with each claim on a case by case basis.

The CAA said its decision to start the legal process comes after a six-month review of airline policies on compensating passengers for delays and supporting them in times of disruption.

In its statement on Saturday it claimed:

– Jet2 and Wizz Air have failed to satisfy the regulator that they are consistently paying compensation for disruption caused by technical faults, despite the Court of Appeal (Jet2 v Huzar) clarifying that airlines must do so.

– Jet 2 and Wizz Air are imposing two-year time limits for passengers to take compensation claims to court, despite the Court of Appeal (Dawson v Thomson) ruling that passengers should have up to six years to take a claim to court.

– Jet2 and Aer Lingus have failed to give us satisfactory evidence that they proactively provide passengers with information about their rights, during disruption, in line with the requirements set out in regulation EC261.

CAA chief executive Andrew Haines said it was ‘disappointed’ a small number of airlines are not complying with the Court of Appeal rulings and continue to ‘let people down’.

A full report of the CAA’s reviews of airlines’ approaches to compensation and providing passengers with information about their rights is due to be published today (Monday).