It is important to know that you have the right to compensation in the event of a flight delay, and that it can go up to 600 euros depending on the distance.
Izvor: Leon T/Shutterstock
The summer season is underway, many airports are already congested, and European airlines are just announcing chaos, crowds and flight delays. For many, this is a problem even before they take off, and many already have experience in how to compensate themselves. It is important to know that you have the right to compensation in the event of a flight delay, and that it can go up to 600 euros depending on the distance.
Eurocontrol warns that in the next 8 weeks, we should expect about 33,000 flights per day, which is an increase of 8 percent compared to a year earlier. Heavy congestion, delays and delays are inevitable, and therefore flight cancellations as well as the use of longer routes to avoid congested areas.
In the case of a canceled flight, people generally do not know whether they are entitled to relief, whether it is a refund for the ticket or just a voucher for lunch at the airport. In the shortest period of time, compensation for damage can go up to 600 euros, and there are other numerous benefits. What is important to know is that when refunding or advertising plane tickets, often for the same problem, airlines, especially “low-cost”, behave completely differently with different clients. So some get compensation, but some get nothing. If the delay is less than 2 hours, all passengers have to eat and drink, i.e. the airline can either reimburse you for these costs, or give you a voucher for them upon request. There are rules and they look like this.
Flight length / fee amount:
Flights up to 1,500 kilometers: 250 evra
Flights in the EU longer than 1,500 kilometers: 400 evra
Flights departing from Europe from 1,500 to 3,500 kilometers: 400 evra
Flights departing from the EU longer than 3,500 kilometers: 600 evra
Flight cancellation and compensation
Even in a situation where you the flight is canceled and you are diverted to another flight that departs later, you are entitled to compensation. If you are less than 2 hours late due to that transfer, you can get from 125 to 300 euros depending on the length of the flight, while for delays of 3 hours or more you can receive compensation from 250 to 600 euros.
Compensation even if you are placed in a lower class
And in this situation, the airlines should pay you some kind of compensation. As in previous cases, everything depends on the length of the flight, and fees range from 30 percent of the value of the original ticket to 75 percent. What is specific about “low-cost” companies is that they are their own airline tickets are far cheaper than regular ones, and that the fees they owe you are often much higher than the price of the ticket itself. Very often these companies look to “override” their passengers and offer them just a ticket claim or rerouting, but you can still get a fee out of them by contacting one of the international companies that do just that.
Passenger rights due to flight delay/cancellation
Serbia, as a candidate for EU membership, in this field applies a single European regulation (Regulation (EC) no. 261/2004) which establishes general rules for compensation and assistance to passengers in case of denied boarding, delay or, in the worst case, flight cancellation, and in this way, all passengers in air transport enjoy the same rights as passengers within the EU. As domestic experts say, when it comes to passengers, they have an absolute right.
“On regular lines, with airlines, in contrast to low-cost companies, which we have to say do not have that kind of obligation, that’s why the tickets are cheaper. The low-cost company can only refund you for the ticket you bought paid and refuses responsibility for any other expenses. You cannot expect them to pay for your hotel if the flight has failed,” Aleksandar Seničić, president of YUTA, recently told RTS.
So our passengers can request the protection of their rights in case the flight is canceled due to any of the following reasons:
due to operational reasons; exceeding the working hours of the crew; the passenger is not registered due to overbooking (more seats than are available are sold, usually due to a change in the type of aircraft..); the flight is unprofitable – low interest; the carrier cannot prove the reasons for the flight cancellation.
On the other hand, passengers cannot request the protection of their rights if the reason for the flight cancellation is not a direct consequence of the airline’s work,j. if the flight was delayed or canceled due to an “external factor”: weather problems, state of emergency, natural disaster, strike, derogation…
What are the obligations of the airline if the flight is cancelled
Like any other business, airlines are looking at yes reduce their costs to a minimum, so when a flight is canceled most of them will tactically focus on offering you a reroute to your final destination. However, airlines are obliged to give the passenger a choice between rerouting and refunding money, as well as the following:
deliver a notice of the rights he has under the Law (most often printed on the electronic ticket itself – international practice, avoiding printing new papers for each canceled flight); offer free meals and refreshing drinks depending on the length of the wait, as prescribed by the company’s procedure; provide hotel accommodation, as well as transport to him, enable two free phone calls and send messages to compensate for the damage (between 250 and 600 euros, depending on the length of the flight and the delay incurred during the rerouting). Directorate of Civil Aviation
As it is written in the Law on Obligations and Fundamentals of Ownership-Legal Relations in Air Transport, you exercise the right to complain by submit to the airline within 90 days from the day the flight took place or was supposed to take place.
“If the air carrier does not comply with the complaint or does not respond to it within 60 days from the date of delivery of the complete documentation necessary for the complaint, the passenger has the right to report a violation of this law to the competent Directorate,” it says on the website of the Civil Aviation Directorate. According to the regulations of the European Union, the Directorate takes care of the implementation of the provisions of the law related to the respect of the rights guaranteed to passengers in the following cases:
for all flights whose place of departure is an airport in the territory of the Republic of Serbia; or their place of departure is an airport of a country that is not listed in Article 8, paragraph 2, point of this law (airports outside the ESAA area), provided that the place of final destination is an airport on the territory of the Republic of Serbia and that the flight is operated by an air carrier of a country that is a signatory to the ECAA agreement (carriers from the EU area).
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(WORLD/Blic)