Only 38% of Flyers Are Claiming Compensation They’re Owed
Erica Berardi August 11, 2015
A U.K. survey found passengers traveling to and from that country are not cashing in when it comes to flight-delay compensation.
A new study from consumer group Which? revealed that only four out of 10 passengers on flights to or from the U.K. claimed compensation they were entitled to after their flight was delayed.
“Flight delays are a disappointing and stressful reality for people travelling abroad this summer,” said Which? executive director Richard Lloyd. “We are urging people to hold their airline to account and claim the compensation they are rightly owed if they have a lengthy delay.”
According to U.K. Civil Aviation Authority punctuality data, roughly 9,000 flights were delayed for three hours or more between June 2014 and May 2015. Based on that figure, Which? estimates around 900,000 passengers are potentially eligible to receive compensation for their delays.
Passengers travelling within the EU whose flights are delayed for more than three hours could be entitled to between €400 to €600, but an investigation by Which? found that only but only 38 percent of flyers claimed said compensation following a delay.
Which? studied over 1.7 million flights and found:
- Gatwick Airport (LGW) is the worst U.K. airport for delays of three hours or more.
- Passengers on short flights are more likely to be delayed over three hours if travelling on carriers Vueling Airlines, Monarch Airlines or Thomas Cook Airlines — which together accounted for over 700 delayed flights.
- For long flights, passengers were more likely to face delays by three hours or longer with Pakistan International Airlines, Air India or American Airlines, which together accounted for over 400 delayed flights.
- The three largest U.K. airlines — EasyJet, British Airways and Ryanair — operated 48 percent of all flights during the period Which? analyzed and accounted for 44 percent of delays exceeding three hours.
[Photo: iStock]
