UK airlines owe over £4MILLION to more than 8,000 delayed flight passengers claim

SOME of the UK’s largest airlines have failed to pay over £4million in court judgments to delayed flight passengers according to a legal firm.

The spotlight is on Thomson with Bott and Co claiming the airline is the biggest offender after failing to pay £2.4million in compensation to approximately 5,000 delayed passengers.

The legal company says the airline owes its customers the sums largely as a result of compensation under EU261/2004, an EU regulation that is designed to protect the rights of air passengers.

Following, in second-place, is easyJet, who it is claimed failed to pay £1.5m in compensation to over 3,000 delayed passengers.

Bott and Co data says the data comes from  Registry Trust Online, a company that records all County Court judgments in England and Wales.

The company says that passengers, frustrated at the way the airlines, are handling their initial complaints are now instructing solicitors to help recover the compensation due to them.

Solicitor Coby Benson, at the company that describes itself as  ‘the UK’s leading flight delay compensation law firm‘ said he has seen a trend over the years with Thomson, in particular, making life difficult for delayed passengers.

“In 2017 we had to issue court proceedings on 73% of our Thomson cases – around 3,000 in total on behalf of 7,000 passengers.”

Mr Benson explained, “Many of our customers have tried to recover compensation direct from the airline but been ignored or fobbed off so they have had no other choice but to come to us for help.”

But he says issuing court proceedings can be daunting and there are cases where passengers lose because they haven’t got all the details correct. There are also fees to pay up front, which you don’t get back if you lose.