Half a million ‘miss out on payouts’ for late f lights

MORE THAN half a million airline passengers a year could be missing out on compensation worth hundreds of pounds when their flights are delayed.

Six in ten passengers do not claim for the compensation they are entitled to after a major delay, an investigation by consumer watchdog Which? has found.

They urged holidaymakers to ‘hold their airline to account’ and claim the money they are ‘rightly owed’, adding: ‘Consumers could be missing out on millions of pounds.’

under strict Eu consumer rights rules, passengers travelling within the European union who are delayed for more than three hours can be entitled to up to 400 euros (£280) in compensation. This rises to 600 euros (£420) if the journey is over 2,170 miles. Which? calculated that over the last year, 9,000 flights through the UK were delayed for more than three hours, triggering 900,000 potential claims for compensation.

But its study found many people simply didn’t bother to claim, with only four in ten (38 per cent) doing so. This means that some 558,000 passengers could have missed out.

The report also noted: ‘Half of those delayed said they received no support or information about the delay from the airline.’

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: ‘Flight delays are a disappointing and stressful reality for people travelling abroad this summer ... We are urging people to hold their airline to account and claim the compensation they are rightly owed if they have a lengthy delay.’

using Civil Aviation Authority data, experts at Which? analysed more than 1.7million flights to work out which airlines were the ‘worst offenders’.

For short haul journeys, airlines with the most flights delayed for more than three hours, as a proportion of the total flights they ran, were Spanish carrier Vueling (1.2 per cent of their flights), Monarch (1.2 per cent) and Thomas Cook (1.1 per cent), which together accounted for more than 700 delayed flights carrying around 68,000 passengers.

Those on long haul flights were proportionately most likely to be delayed by three hours or more with Pakistan International Airlines (6.6 per cent), Air India (3.5 per cent) and American Airlines (1.6 per cent) together accounting for around 400 affected flights with 40,500 passengers.

Gatwick was the British airport with the highest proportion of flights (0.8 per cent) delayed by more than three hours for which passengers would be eligible for compensation. Some 2,134 flights through Gatwick were delayed, affecting around 200,000 people.

Eu rules state airlines must offer assistance, and sometimes compensation, if your flight is badly delayed. What you are entitled to depends on the length and cause of the delay and the length of the flight. They do not have to pay out if they can prove the delay was caused by ‘extraordinary circumstances’ such as severe weather.

‘Hold your airline to account’