A ‘landmark’ legal case against British Airways and EasyJet over flight delays could lead to compensation payments to millions of passengers, national media reports claim.
The two airlines are reportedly battling to throw out the case, which risks forcing airlines to pay out hundreds of millions of pounds to passengers over late flights.
The two carriers have been sued in the High Court over claims they must automatically compensate travellers whose flights are severely delayed or cancelled, according to the Telegraph.
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This could potentially lead to an overhaul in how passengers are reimbursed for travel hold-ups, as they will no longer have to submit claims themselves if their trip is disrupted.
Lawyers are said to have identified up to 100,000 flights that were either delayed or cancelled since 2016, potentially landing BA and easyJet with a damages bill of at least £100 million.
If successful, the case could also pave the way for vast payouts across the industry, putting pressure on airlines wort hit by delays ands cancellations.
A two-day court hearing is due to take place this week into the class action which is being brought by an unnamed individual backed by litigation funders, according to the newspaper.
Passengers are entitled to compensation of up to £520 if their flights are delayed by more than three hours but they must contact the airlines themselves to make a claim.
This has raised concerns that many travellers are unaware of their rights, with few taking up the opportunity to seek compensation.
A BA spokesperson said: “We comply with our obligations under the regulation. We don’t believe this claim has a proper legal basis – it’s misconceived and therefore along with EasyJet we’ve applied to strike it out.
“In any event, we will continue to strongly defend our position. Customers can submit compensation requests directly to us online or by writing to our customer relations team to receive full payment for eligible claims.”
An easyJet spokesperson said: “Not only do we believe this has no legal or procedural basis, this action is being brought in order to profit by taking a cut from every claim when there are already existing and easy routes for eligible customers to receive 100% of their compensation.”
Meanwhile, BA was reported by the Financial Times to have cancelled 4,033 flights from UK airports over the past year, nearly double that of EasyJet, with the newspaper citing data from aviation analytics form Cirium.
The figure equated to 2.3% of BA’s flights from the UK against the industry average of 1.4%.
BA said in response that its on-time performance at Heathrow is now better than its direct rivals, Air France, KLM and Lufthansa, at their hub airports. Its punctuality has improved from 60% of flights departing or arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled time last year to 80% this spring following changes at Heathrow.