When flights are delayed for more than two hours, air passengers are entitled to care and assistance by the airline.

In the first instance, passengers must be offered refreshments and the possibility of making two telephone calls or send faxes or e-mails.

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

Technical or maintenance issues are usually not considered to be extraordinary circumstances

Furthermore, if a flight is delayed by more than five hours and passengers decide not to continue with their journey, the law gives them the right to have their ticket reimbursed and be flown back to where their journey started.

If due to the delay, passengers end up arriving more than three hours late at their final destination, they may also be entitled to financial compensation as when flights are cancelled or overbooked. This unless the delay was due to an extraordinary circumstance.

To determine if an incident can be classified as an extraordinary circumstance, it depends whether or not the airline could have foreseen the problem that caused the delay.

Could the airline have taken reasonable measures to prevent the problem? Is the problem or incident a freak occurrence, or something that is to be expected to happen every now and then?

If no, then the incident may be considered as an extraordinary event. The latter include events like extreme adverse weather, political instability, security risks and terror threats, strikes and industrial actions.

Technical or maintenance issues are not considered to be extraordinary circumstances, unless they arise from an exceptional event beyond the airline’s control. In case of a dispute, it is the airline’s responsibility to prove that the facts amounted to an extraordinary situation.

When a flight delay exceeding three hours is not due to an extraordinary circumstance, the financial compensation air passengers are entitled to varies from €125 to €600, depending on the distance of the flight and the delay.

This legal protection applies to all flights that originate from an EU member state and are directed to another EU member state, countries outside the EU and flights from countries outside the EU flying to an EU country on a European airline.

odette.vella@mccaa.org.mt

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