Stranded at the airport?

Were you ever booked on a flight, ready to check in at the airport, when you were informed that your flight has been delayed, or even cancelled?

In the event of long delays (two hours or more) passengers must be taken care of by the airline and offered free meals and refreshments plus two free telephone calls- Odette Vella

Have you ever been told, while checking in, that your flight is overbooked? What would your reaction be if you were to find yourself in one of these situations?

Do you know what your legal rights are as an airline passenger?

The most common problem encountered is discovering that your flight has been delayed. According to the EC Regulation 261/2004, in the event of long delays (two hours or more, depending on the distance of the flight), passengers must be taken care of by the airline and offered free meals and refreshments plus two free telephone calls, telex or fax messages, or e-mails.

If the time of departure is deferred to the next day, passengers must also be offered hotel accommodation and transport between the airport and place of accommodation.

When the delay is five hours or longer, passengers may opt for reimbursement of the full cost of the ticket together with, when relevant, a return flight to the first point of departure.

Another problem we could encounter is flight cancellation. When this happens the air-carrier must offer us a choice between:

• Reimbursement of the full cost of the ticket together with, when relevant, a return flight to the first point of departure;

• re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to our final destination at the earliest opportunity; or

• re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to our final destination at a later date convenient to us and subject to availability of seats.

We must also be taken care of during our stay at the airport and have the same rights to meals, accommodation and transport as passengers whose flight has been delayed.

We are also entitled to financial compensation. This monetary compensation varies from €250 to €600, depending on the length of the flight. The distance for compensation is calculated from the first point where the passenger is denied boarding and the final destination.

This compensation may be reduced by half if the operating carrier offers the affected passengers re-routing to their final destination on an alternative flight and the arrival time does not exceed the scheduled arrival time of the flight originally booked:

• by two hours in respect of all flights of 1,500 km;

• by three hours, in respect of all intra-community flights of more than 1,500 km and for all other flights between 1,500 km and 3,500 km; or

• by four hours in respect of all flights not falling under (a) or (b).

This financial compensation does not apply when passengers are informed about the cancelled flight at least two weeks before the scheduled time of departure; or are informed of the cancellation from seven days to two weeks before the date of departure and are offered re-routing.

This re-routing must allow passengers to depart no more than two hours before the scheduled time of departure and to reach their final destination less than four hours after the scheduled time of arrival.

When passengers are informed about the cancellation less than seven days before the date of departure, and are offered re-routing, the new flight should allow them to depart no more than one hour before the scheduled time of departure and to reach their final destination less than two hours after the scheduled time of arrival.

Furthermore, an airline shall not be obliged to pay financial compensation if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided, even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

As passengers, we may also be left stranded at an airport due to overbooked flights. In these situations, the legal obligation of an airline is to call for volunteers to surrender their reservations in exchange for certain benefits.

If an insufficient number of volunteers come forward to allow the remaining passengers to board the flight, the airline may then deny boarding to passengers against their will, in which case it must compensate them.

In this situation, people with reduced mobility and those accompanying them should be given priority.

Air passengers who in this case are denied boarding are entitled to the same assistance and compensation as those passengers whose flight has been cancelled.

Should we have a valid complaint against an airline about denied boarding, cancellation, or long delay, we must first contact the airline that operated the flight and try to solve the issue amicably.

If we do not manage to reach an acceptable solution, we need to file an official complaint with the Office for Consumer Affairs at the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority to start mediation with the airline.

customer@timesofmalta.com

odette.vella@gov.mt

Ms Vella is senior information officer, Office for Consumer Affairs, Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority.