Airlines Have Failed to Pay 4 Million Pounds in Compensation to Holidaymakers Due to Air Travel Delays and Cancellations, Investigation Reveals
By Katie Amey, The Daily Mail | Apr. 02, 2018
British holidaymakers awaiting flight delay and cancellation compensation may be waiting awhile longer.
A recent investigation has found that airlines have failed to pay 4 million pounds-- despite a court ruling ordering otherwise.
TUI alone, the holiday travel group formerly known as Thomson, reportedly owes 5,000 passengers up to 2.4 million pounds.
As many holidaymakers known, flight delays and cancellations are some of the worst ways to begin a holiday.
But, under EU law, travellers are entitled to up to 529 pounds compensation if they arrive at their destination more than three hours late.
Despite this fact, an investigation by The Sun has found that more than 10,000 British holidaymakers are still owed compensation due to airline delays and cancellations.
easyJet, however, which reportedly now owes more than 3,000 travellers 1.5 million pounds, disputes these allegations.
The remaining thousands of cases are smaller claims against other airlines.
Speaking to MailOnline, a representative for easyJet said: 'We take our responsibilities under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 extremely seriously and will always pay compensation when it is due.
We have been working on a number of processes which are designed to significantly improve our claims function to make it as easy as possible for our passengers to claim with us directly rather than sacrificing a significant portion of their compensation to other organisations unnecessarily.
To be clear, easyJet pays the vast majority of judgments ruled in favour of Claimants even where we believe we have good grounds for success to have judgments set aside.
These Court records do not represent unpaid claims but suggest that the administrative process not been completed to remove the judgements from the Court register.'
According to the investigation, some passengers who have tried to recover compensation from TUI in the past have been ignored, eventually choosing to hire legal help.
Law firm Bott and Co said that of their 3,000 cases against TUI in 2017, 73 per cent wound up in court.
MailOnline Travel has contacted TUI for comment.