Low Cost customers to get 'very little' compensation

CUSTOMERS of failed Low Cost Travel Group are likely to receive just £7.50 each compensation, according to the administrators. The Palma-based company had lodged a bond of only €1.3 million (£1.09 million) with the Spanish travel agency regulator, even though it had a turnover of approximately £500 million a year

Finbarr O'Connell, of administrator Smith Williamson, told The Times that potential claims from customers could be more than £50 million. ‘There are about 140,000 customers we believe have lost out. Sadly this means there will be very little back for any claim.’

He said compensation will be paid to claimants on a pooled basis so everyone will get back about 1% to 2%. The company, which was not ATOL-bonded, has been criticized for sending e-mails offering customers large discounts to book hours before it collapsed.

Customers are being advised to contact their airline to check that their bookings were valid. The group said that in 'most' cases, flights had been paid for and tickets were still valid, but holidaymakers were likely to have to pay again for their accommodation or find alternatives.

Those who booked with a credit card and some debit cards might be able to claim compensation from their card issuers, while others might be able to make an insurance claim if their policy included supplier failure.

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Brits lead flight claims league

FLIGHT delay compensation claims processed by refund.me, the passenger rights legal services provider, reached record levels during for the peak summer holiday travel season June through September. 

The four-month period saw refund.me process claims for flight delays and cancellations against 151 airlines. UK passengers sought compensation from more airlines than other European passengers, lodging claims against 96 different airlines.

While the number of claims lodged against individual airlines differed from country to country, aggregate numbers show that of complaints against all airlines, 13 percent of compensation claims were directed against Spanish low-cost airline Vueling. easyJet received eight percent of all claims, followed by Ryanair (5%), Air France (3.5%), and British Airways (3%).

Vueling also attracted the highest percentage of complaints from UK passengers during the study period. Of the 96 airlines, Vueling accounted for 11 percent of all claims presented for compensation. EasyJet followed at seven percent, Ryanair at six percent, and British Airways and Norwegian tied at 5 percent.

Eve Buchner, founder and CEO of refund.me, says: ‘Our study confirms the trend for an increase in complaints over travel-intensive holiday seasons. While the data is a snapshot from the UK and selected European countries, it highlights that overall, charter and low-cost airlines consistently under-perform in comparison to scheduled carriers. Passengers endure more travel disruption and we are seeing a significant upsurge in passengers asserting their rights to compensation under EU law.’

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Ryanair loses delay compensation case; airline to appeal

A JUDGE at Manchester County Court has ruled in favour of consumers in the flight delay test case – Goel & Trivedi v Ryanair. It is a decision which stands to benefit millions of passengers.

The judge ruled that Ryanair cannot dictate how long passengers have to claim flight delay compensation through a clause in its small print.

Ryanair argued that by accepting the airline’s conditions when they buy a ticket, passengers agreed that they have only two years to take a claim to court, despite the Supreme Court saying they have six years.

Article 15 of Flight Delay Regulation EC 261/2004 states that airlines ‘cannot limit or restrict the rights contained in the Regulations’. The judge in Manchester upheld Article 15 and said ‘On any view, that must amount to a restriction or limit on the airline’s obligation to pay and thus fall foul of Article 15.1.’

It is likely that all other flight compensation claims in England and Wales will follow the decision.

Flight delay Regulation EC 261/2004 entitles passengers to claim flight compensation of up to €600 (£434) per person for delays of three hours or more, as long as the delay was not caused by ‘extraordinary circumstances’.

The law states that airlines must apply the limitation period (how long a passenger has to take the claim to court) of the country in which the claim was lodged.

The Supreme Court ruling in an earlier case clarified that passengers in England and Wales have six years to take a claim to court.

A statement from Ryanair following the decision read: ‘We note this ruling which reverses lower court orders that a two year time limit for claims is reasonable.Since we believe a six year time limit for submitting such claims is both unnecessary and unreasonable, we have instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this ruling.’

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Heathrow tops in Europe for delays and cancellations

HEATHROW suffers from the highest percentage of delayed and cancelled flights over its main rival airports in Europe, says flight data company EUclaim.

It found that #Heathrow had the highest number of delays or cancellations over 30 minutes between 2012 and 2014.

Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt – both of which deal with a similar number of flights to Heathrow every year but have more runways – had a much better record.

The company’s UK manager, Adeline Noorderhaven, issued the statistics as the Airports Commission recommended Heathrow be expanded with a third runway.

‘Heathrow is currently running at 99% capacity,’ she said. ‘The reason London Heathrow has such a high percentage of delays compared to its European counterparts is because it’s functioning with two runways while Frankfurt and Amsterdam have four and five respectively.

‘The proposed third runway will make a huge difference to passengers, lessening the chance of delay and the need to claim flight delay compensation.’

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Travel facts …

COMPLAINTS against #US airlines in the first quarter of 2015 are up by 15% over the same period in 2014. 

More than one-third of consumer complaints about US airlines stemmed from flight problems, including cancellations, delays, and missed connections.

Among the carriers facing the largest number of flight-problem complaints were American Airlines, United Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and Spirit Airlines.

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Hospitality body wants tax cut from new UK government

THE UK’s new government should cut tourism Value Added Tax (VAT) to 5%, according to the British Hospitality Association.

Said chief executive Ufi Ibrahim: ‘Our top agenda item for the Prime Minister and the Chancellor is to cut tourism VAT to 5%, which could massively boost jobs, bring billions of new revenue to the Treasury, and directly improve the livelihoods of people in struggling communities across the UK.

‘Let's hope consumers are the winners in the final result, and can look forward to the benefits of an increasingly healthy economy.’

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Cancelled or delayed flight?

Get this compensation guide ....

AIRPORT PARKING & HOTELS (APH) has published a guide for airline passengers dealing with delayed or cancelled flights.

Available on the company’s website - www.aph.com - the guide includes research comparing 25 major airlines, including British Airways, easyJet, Iberia, and Virgin Atlantic, highlighting their policies on cancelled and delayed flights, and refund procedures.

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UK flight cancellations and delays up, claims compensation firm

FLIGHT cancellations and delays rose in the first part of 2015, according to analysis by the compensation company, EUclaim. But the main causes appear to be those over which UK-based airlines had no control: strikes in Italy and Germany, and weather.

Bad winter weather at the start of the year, and a series of strikes led to a 20% rise in the number of cancelled flights to 5,080 over the first four months of last year. The number of delays also increased by 7% to 2,427 against 2,260 in the same period in 2014.

Monarch suffered the greatest increase in delays so far this year with passengers experiencing 64 incidents, compared with 47 in the same four-month period last year. 

easyJet saw a 19% increase, with 245 delays in the first four months, and Jet2 17%. Ryanair and Thomson Airways both saw a 6% rise in delays, and Virgin Atlantic 7%. 

But Thomas Cook Airlines cut delays by 37% and British Airways saw an 11% reduction.

Winter weather across Europe was worse than in 2014, particularly affecting Jet2, easyJet and Monarch, with the three airlines suffering considerable delays on ski routes to Chambery and Grenoble in France.

The second cause highlighted was the number of strikes in Europe. A four-day Lufthansa strike resulted in some 116 flights cancelled to the UK. Industrial action by Italian air traffic controllers and security staff in Germany also compounded the problem, according to EUclaim.

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Consumer rights violation lands three airlines in trouble

AT least three airlines are facing legal action over passenger handling complaints after being hit by flight disruptions. 

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said Ireland’s Aer Lingus, Britain’s Jet2 and Hungary’s Wizz Air have failed to change their consumer policies in line with its requests.

Andrew Haines, chief executive of the CAA, said passengers had ‘every right to be disappointed’ by the airlines.

The move follows a six-month review of passenger disruption policies. It examined how airlines handle compensation for flight delays and offer information to passengers about their rights. The CAA said it has launched enforcement action against the three airlines and will seek a court order unless they comply.

The allegations are:

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

- Aer Lingus and Jet2 have failed to give satisfactory evidence that they pro-actively provide passengers with information about their rights in line with the requirements set out in European regulation.

- Jet2 and Wizz Air are imposing two-year time limits for passengers to take compensation claims to the court, despite a Court of Appeal ruling that passengers should have up to six years to take a claim to court.


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