New law protects passengers

International airlines will be forced to pay compensation of up to five million baht to the next-of-kin of passengers who die inflight under the new International Air Carriage Act 2015, says deputy permanent secretary for transport Woradech Hanprasert.

Mr Woradech said details of the act have been published in the Royal Gazette which means it takes effect immediately.

The law was drafted to deal with compensation demands from passengers and relatives in cases where airlines are at fault. Previously, Thai authorities had to deal with such issues through its aviation regulations and no specific legislations existed. Mr Woradech said airlines have to develop rules and regulations in accordance with the new law.

However, every airline normally has regulations to protect passenger rights which includes compensation packages for passengers.

Under the act, up to five million baht will be paid out for passengers who die or are injured on board international flights, Mr Woradech said, adding passengers can also file a lawsuit to recover additional compensation from airlines.

The law will provide better assistance to passengers and their relatives as they previously had to make personal injury or death claims themselves, Mr Woradech said.

Under the act, airlines will also be responsible for people affected by delayed flights and loss and damage to baggage and carry-on luggage. These items are deemed as coming under the supervision of airlines during the flight and check-in process.

However, airlines will not have to pay compensation if they can prove they have implemented measures to tackle such problems, or losses occurred through “unavoidable situations”.

The new law covers international airlines in Thai airspace and Thai-registered airlines anywhere in the world. The act uses the so-called Special Drawing Rights (SDR) valuation to determine how much each compensation case is worth.