Image: Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press
Airlines can be stingy with compensation for delayed or cancelled flights, and a new settlement from Virgin Atlantic is no exception.
It took almost two years for Virgin Atlantic to compensate the 101 passengers who were delayed for 26 hours on a flight from Orlando, Florida, to London Gatwick in October 2012. The airline is now paying a total of 60,000 euros (about $81,600), or about 600 euros per passenger, the maximum compensation under EU regulations.
The Virgin Atlantic flight was delayed because of the aircraft's fire detector system. The airline compensated the passengers after a British court ruled in favor of a passenger on another carrier who was delayed for 27 hours. In that case, Ron Huzar filed a claim against low-cost carrier Jet2 after his 2011 flight from Manchester, UK, to Malaga, Spain, was delayed due to a wiring defect.
Jet2 claimed that the defect qualified as "extraordinary circumstances," which would not qualify for passenger compensation. But England's Court of Appeal ruled that the technical issue was the responsibility of the airline.
Passengers on the Virgin Atlantic flight were provided accommodations during the delay, but the airline had held off paying additional compensation.
When the passengers contacted Britain's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), they were at first told the delay qualified for compensation, but later told they did not.
In November 2013, the passengers hired Bott & Co Aviation, a personal injury law firm in the UK that also specializes in flight delay compensation.
The amount of compensation is based on European Union Regulation 261/2004, which regulates how and when passengers are compensated when delayed on flights to and from the EU. The court stated that airlines could not reject compensation claims for delays that were caused by technical issues.
The Court of Appeal's decision could open up the possibility for more passengers to file claims against airlines for technical-related delays, but whether or not it will remains to be seen.
"Going forward, the lasting impact of the Huzar decision on new cases remains uncertain and we are continuing to monitor developments in this area closely," a spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said. No timeline was provided for when the passengers will receive payment.
The decision has no immediate implications on passenger compensation for flights outside the EU.
In the U.S., there are no federal requirements for airlines to compensate passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled, so each airline decides how to compensate passengers.
Most major carriers provide rerouting service and accommodations for passengers if the delay is under the airline's control.
"If the change is due to circumstances beyond our control, we will have no liability to you other than to refund your ticket price," Delta states on its website. When flights are delayed by weather or natural disaster, passengers are usually on their own.
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