A company that specialises in helping airline passengers get compensation says 1000 people are entitled to £430 every day in the UK.
Dutch company EUclaim gathers and analyses flight data and uses the information to prove the cases of travellers who have suffered delays or cancellations and want compensation from the airlines.
It has based the figures on an average UK flight cancellation rate of 1.2% and concludes that £115m is going unclaimed. The company says few people know about the EC regulation 261/2004 introduced in 2005 which gives air passengers rights to compensation and help if boarding is denied, flights cancelled, delays suffered or downgrades made.
EU law states that airlines don’t have to pay out if flights are cancelled at the last minute due to extraordinary circumstances such as technical problems but EUclaim says carriers use this law to their advantage.
Said EUclaim chief executive officer Hendrik Noorderhaven: “It is virtually impossible for passengers to object to airline statements about technical circumstances. As a result the airlines have been able to effectively hide behind the claim of extraordinary circumstance – until now.”
The company says it monitors every aircraft of every airline 24/7 and uses this flight intelligence to successfully prove that airlines have delayed or cancelled flights for economic reasons rather than technical ones.
By Dinah Hatch
