Thomas Cook passengers who were delayed, when authorities impounded their plane, are awarded compensation for the delayed flight
Thomas Cook have been ordered to pay £20,000 compensation for the delayed flight, to 41 passengers, when their plane was grounded by Mexican authorities – because a $200 air charge wasn’t paid. Full article here.
A judge at Manchester County Court ruled that the airline was liable to pay 41 passengers compensation for a delayed flight. Passengers were awarded €600 (£487) each, see our website for “what I need to make a delayed flight claim for compensation“.
The Passengers were sent to a hotel for two nights, eventually arriving 43 hours late. The compensation for the delayed flight was £487.80 each, after Thomas Cook refused to pay the group compensation outside of court.
Mrs Lewis, a passenger on the delayed flight said: ‘It wasn’t a case of having two days’ extra holiday. It was impossible to relax because we had no idea how long we were going to be there. We kept getting told to check-out of the hotel, only to be told to check back in again after hours of waiting around. During all this time nobody would tell us why we were delayed or when we could go home.
‘One Thomas Cook rep eventually told us the delay had been caused by weather, but then another told us it had been caused by a technical problem, when of course it was actually down to the Mexican Authorities impounding the plane.
She said ‘When we eventually got back home, trying to claim direct from Thomas Cook was awful. They ignored our first two letters, only replying after the third and fourth.
‘They told us we weren’t entitled to compensation, so we contacted the CAA, who took just as long to reply.’
The airline should have paid the compensation for the delayed flight to the passengers immediately to avoid the lengthy court process and extra hassle. Under the European Regulation EC 261/2004, passengers should receive compensation for delayed flight if they were delayed by three hours or more in the past six years and as long as their delay was not caused by ‘extraordinary circumstances’.
The law applies to flights departing an EU country or landing in an EU country on-board an EU airline.
Contact our team today to start your claim for compensation for a delayed flight.
