British travellers set for £130m cash windfall
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Flight compensation company EUclaim estimates that almost £130 million will be left unclaimed from summer flight delays, as British holiday makers are failing to cash-in on compensation owed to them by airlines.
The statistic comes off the back of research conducted by EUclaim, that shows this summer has been the worst for airline passengers since 2014, with almost 4,500 cancelled and delayed flights in July and August this year alone. Of these, over three quarters (76%) were claimable, meaning that money rightfully owed to passengers, is being pocketed by the airlines.
In comparison, the same period in 2015 and 2014 witnessed just over 3,500 incidents each year respectively.
“The dramatic increase in delayed and cancelled flights in 2016 can be blamed on several factors; striking French Air Traffic Controllers, especially bad weather, a military coup, protestors and a potholed runway,” commented Adeline Noorderhaven, UK manager of EUclaim.
“The airlines will never proactively offer compensation and we believe the EU – the body that regulates flight delay compensation – should look long and hard at whether the airlines are doing enough by the consumer and operating within the spirit of the existing regulation.”
The internal research piece identified the 11th July as the worst day for passengers, with 125 incidents – the majority of these were blamed by airlines on, ‘freak weather’.
July is historically bad for delays and cancellations, with 2014/15 data revealing the month to be particularly tricky for those flying. The 15thJuly 2015 saw 124 incidents logged, while on the 28th July 2014 a massive 400 incidents were registered on one day alone. On this occasion a ‘summer-storm’ was blamed by airlines.
Not every day fared so badly this summer, with Sunday 14th August being revealed as the best day for travellers this year with only 26 incidents in total.
July & August: cancelled and delayed flights, and number of claimable cases
July & August | Cancelled flights | Delayed flights (180 minutes +) | Total number of delayed and cancelled flights | Number of claimable cases | Percentage of claimable flight delays and cancellations |
2014 | 1402 | 2177 | 3579 | 2447 | 68% |
2015 | 1676 | 1979 | 3655 | 2578 | 71% |
2016 | 2299 | 2188 | 4487 | 3417 | 76% |
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