Passengers may be entitled to compensation if flights delayed

13:42

The issue of reimbursement to passengers for air flight delays is an urgent one for Ukraine, according to lawyer Olha Herasimova, a partner of the Adler and Partners law firm.

Commenting on a ruling of the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice that passengers flying by France's Air France SA or Germany's Condor Flugdienst GmbH whose flights are delayed may be entitled to compensation, she said that according to the Civil Code of Ukraine an air carrier is responsible to its passengers. In addition, in May 2009 the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air came into effect in Ukraine. Ukraine joined the convention in 2008.

"According to Article 19 of the convention, the carrier is liable for damages occasioned by a delay in the carriage of passengers, luggage or goods," Herasimova said.

At the same time, she said that the carrier is not liable if it proves that it and its agents took all of the necessary measures to avoid the damage, or that it was impossible for it or its agents to take such measures.

In addition, Herasimova said that according to Article 922 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, if the flight departure or arrival is delayed, the carrier should reimburse the passenger for the delay with a sum defined by an agreement between the sides, transport codes/statutes, if it does not prove that the violations occurred as a result of some unavoidable circumstances, the repair of faults that threatened the lives and health of passengers, or other circumstances not depending on the carrier.

Herasimova said that in spite of the fact there are such normative documents, they are applied very seldom in Ukraine.

"Because the current legislation does not foresee the size of fines for flight delays, fines are set under an agreement of the sides," she said.

However, the situation could change. A draft law on the protection of air passengers' rights in the case that they are denied the right to board or the flight is canceled or delayed was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada on October 6, 2009. The draft law foresees the introduction of set compensation sums for flight delays.

"According to Article 6 of this draft law, the compensation size varies from EUR 250 to EUR 600 depending on the reason for the delay," Herasimova said.

According to Herasimova, if the draft law is adopted, air carriers will follow air flight schedules with all responsibility

As reported, referring to Bloomberg, according to the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, passengers flying by France's Air France SA or Germany's Condor Flugdienst GmbH whose flights were delayed should be entitled to compensation. In both cases the flights were delayed for over 22 hours.

According to the court's ruling, passengers could demand the air carrier pay a compensation of up to EUR 600, it the delay is not linked with force majeure circumstances.