The UK High Court has suspended the right of air passengers to compensation if they suffer a flight delay of three hours or more.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled last November that passengers were entitled to compensation for delays. But following a challenge brought by British Airways, Tui Travel, easyJet and the International Air Transport Association, the High Court has referred the issue back to the European court.
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said: “The High Court has stayed our enforcement powers so the courts won’t hear [compensation] cases in the interim.”
It is expected to be two years before the Court of Justice reviews the case.
Regulation EC 261/2004 introduced pan-European rules on passengers’ rights following flight delays, cancellations and denied boarding, but until last November passengers could not expect compensation for a delay.
Then the ECJ made its so-called ‘Sturgeon’ ruling, establishing that “passengers whose flights are delayed may be treated as passengers whose flights are cancelled . . . where they suffer a loss of time equal to or in excess of three hours”.
The issue was clouded by the fact that compensation would not apply if a delay was due to “extraordinary circumstances”. But the court ruled that technical problems would not normally qualify as extraordinary.
