The delay in flights are common at European airports nowadays. According to EU law, in cases of delays over 3 hours, which are due to the fault of the carrier, passengers are entitled to compensation from the airline, ranging between 250 to 600 euros. The majority of passengers are still not aware of their rights, and only half of the affected individuals claim their entitlement. European airlines save approximately 5 billion euros on this, as pointed out by DelayFix.
“Almost every fifth plane today is delayed by at least 30 minutes. Companies specializing in recovering compensation help passengers in case of a delay above 3 hours that is the carrier’s fault. These kinds of delays occur in one flight out of 200, but here we are talking about more difficult situations for passengers when they have to wait for their flight, often for several hours, camping at the airport”, says Dominik Lewandowski, general director at DelayFix.
According to EU regulation EC261/2004, passengers are entitled to compensation from the airline if the airplane reached the destination at least 3 hours later than planned, or if it was cancelled. The condition is that the flight is departing from a country within the EU or an airline registered within the EU. If the delay happened because of the carrier, the passenger can receive between 250 to 600 euros depending on the distance between the departure and arrival locations. The average compensation in Poland in 2023 was 360 euros.
“We observe an increase in problems related to delayed flights along with an increase in global air travel. Charter airlines, which I would call exotic, have the highest share of delayed flights that qualify for compensation under EC261. The first is the Turkish airline Tailwind, with 4% of its flights qualifying for compensation. The second is the Egyptian Red Sea, where 3% of flights qualify for compensation. In third place is the Spanish airline Plus Ultra, with 2% of its flights meeting the conditions for compensation, which means that they were delayed by at least 3 hours, and the causes are the fault of the carrier”, lists Dominik Lewandowski.
As he points out, regular flights have a significantly lower rate of incidents. The leaders in this regard are WizzAir (0.71%), SAS (0.33%), and Air Dolomiti (0.51%).
“Delays on the part of the carrier are largely due to the desire to maximize profit and reduce the time spent on the ground. We have many such examples, especially among low-cost airlines, where the planned time for parking the plane is definitely too short, even counting 25 minutes. This is the time when the airline plans to unload passengers, unpack baggage, refuel, board new passengers, load new baggage, and clean in the meantime. This time is somewhat optimistic, considering that as part of running a business, airlines also deal with situations that extend this time”, says the General Director of DelayFix. “Tight flight schedules compared to the number of airplanes the airlines have, and the pressure for profit, means that this business risk is kind of shifted onto passengers who pay for it by waiting many hours for their delayed flight, often camping at the airport.”
According to data cited by DelayFix, in Poland the share of flights qualifying for compensation in the total number of flights is 0.6%. Last year, almost 500,000 Polish travelers experienced the negative effects associated with irregular flights. The potential compensation amounted to 750 million PLN. Experts emphasize that less than half of the eligible passengers receive it, which means carriers save over 300 million PLN. The main reasons for non-payment of benefits are passengers’ lack of knowledge, their resignation from seeking compensation, and unjustified refusals from airlines.
“The number of passengers who use companies specializing in obtaining compensation is similar to the number of those passengers who are trying to get compensation from the airline on their own. However, we must remember that we have many cases where a passenger initially tries to get compensation from an airline, receives a refusal there, and asks a compensation recovery company for help”, says Dominik Lewandowski.
As he points out, in Europe 87% of passengers are not aware of their rights, and 5 billion euros in compensation remains unclaimed. Lack of awareness is the basic problem that causes passengers not to fight for compensation.
“Another problem with claiming compensation by passengers is that it sometimes results in a long-term, time-consuming stressful process. The passenger has to file a complaint to a particular airline, often prove that it was its fault, sometimes also there are court proceedings that last a long time. This can discourage every passenger from seeking compensation from an airline”, says the General Director of DelayFix.
Those who decide to pursue their claims through specialized companies pay them a fee which is a percentage of the compensation amount. As the expert emphasizes, one must ensure that the fee will be collected only in case of a successful claim.
