Airlines “must pay compensation for some delays”
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Passengers who suffer flight delays of more than a day after a strike must be compensated by the airline, its European Court of Justice has said.
Using the case of a man whose Finnair flight was delayed after two days in 2006, the European courts said that strikes are not exempt from compensation, reported the BBC. Passengers who board delayed flights within 24 hours would not receive compensation.
The ECJ likened the ‘denied boarding’ situation to over-booking as carriers effectively choose which passengers it carries first. The new ruling applies to flights within the European Union of more than 1, 500 km.
“The occurrence of extraordinary circumstances – such as a strike – resulting in an air carrier rescheduling subsequent flights does not give grounds for denying boarding or for exempting that carrier from its obligation to compensate passengers denied boarding on those later flights,” the ECJ said, as reported by the BBC.