Lawyers slam airlines for ‘shameful’ remarks about passenger compensation
The airline industry has come under fire from a law firm after claiming that EU regulations have created a "compensation culture".
Law firm Bott & Co, which specialises in flight claims, said the comments made by the Board of Airline Representatives in the UK were "shameful".
It argued that EU Regulation 261/2004 are there to protect consumers and hold airlines to account for "continued poor customer care and over-stretched schedules".
"The Regulation is the European Commission’s attempt to balance the rights of individual passengers against the financial might of the airlines," said managing partner Paul Hinchliffe.
"It is designed to be a deterrent to airlines who put profit before passengers. Those well managed airlines who really do care for their passengers, have nothing to fear in terms of cost arising from EU 261. How else can airlines be held to account for continued poor customer care and over-stretched schedules other than financial penalties?"
The law firm also refuted claims by BAR UK that passengers are less likely to take out travel insurance because they believe the airlines are responsible.
Instead, it claims that in reality only around 5% of passengers are aware of their right to claim under EU261 and are unlikely to neglect taking insurance because of it.
Coby Benson, technical legal manager at Bott & Co’s Aviation Team, said: "Insurance policies often only pay-out when a delay is in excess of 24 hours, which is an extremely rare occurrence.
"Furthermore, It’s unlikely that passengers were previously taking out travel insurance simply to cover their loss in the event of a delay, people’s primary concern is invariably medical and baggage cover."
He said that if every person in the world claimed for compensation under the Regulation when they are entitled to it then the cost added to each ticket would be just £2-3 per passenger.
"In reality though, very few people are aware of their rights, fewer make a claim and of those only a small number are successful at claiming. The biggest expense is the airlines hiring lawyers to defend claims that are quite clearly valid under Regulation 261/2004.
"Of course prevention is always better than care and as such airlines should be adjusting their operations to ensure that delays and cancellations are reduced as much as possible."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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