A judge has ruled that airlines cannot continue to keep passengers waiting for compensation owed after delayed flights.
Tens of thousands of people demanding compensation are likely to be affected, according to solicitors representing Kim Allen, the passenger in the test case.
Ms Allen is claiming €400 after her flight from Manchester to Malaga in 2012 was delayed for nearly seven hours.
The judge at Liverpool County Court rules in Ms Allen’s favour after the airline Jet2 applied to have her claim delayed for a second time.
Previous judgements have obliged airlines to pay compensation, but a number have chosen to await a European Court of Justice verdict concerning a delayed KLM flight also due to a technical problem. Airlines are arguing that such technical hitches are “extraordinary circumstances” for which they do not have to pay compensation.
But the Liverpool judge concluded that passengers like Ms Allen are entitled to have their cases proceed and that: “…a line should now been drawn. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
He also recognised that air passengers asking to be compensated feel they are “on an airline-driven merry-go-round that shows no sign of stopping.”
Some critics said the delays in paying compensation were not exclusively the fault of airlines. Apparently, the EU regulations failed to make provision for “technical” delay in its original document.
