British Airways has apologised to passengers for wrongly denying them compensation when flights had been cancelled at brief discover and says will probably be contacting affected prospects to supply them cash.
BA is at present cancelling greater than 100 home and European flights a day to and from its fundamental base at London Heathrow on account of workers shortages. Passengers already booked on the affected flights are normally given a number of weeks’ warning, however some cancellations are made at brief discover.
Underneath European air passengers’ rights guidelines, often called EC261, if a flight is cancelled lower than two weeks upfront, travellers are typically entitled to compensation – both £220 or £350 for short-haul journeys, relying on whether or not the journey is much less or greater than 1,500km.
However passengers who sought compensation have contacted The Unbiased to say their claims had been rejected by BA. The one grounds for a service rejecting a declare is that if “extraordinary circumstances” had been accountable.
After British Airways cancelled a Heathrow-Dublin flight on Monday, a passenger looking for compensation was informed: “Your declare’s been refused as a result of flight BA0828 on 9 Could was cancelled on account of the worldwide pandemic attributable to Covid-19.
“The Covid-19 pandemic is an exterior issue, which is past the management of the airline and is an ‘extraordinary circumstance’. It isn’t inherent within the regular exercise of the airline and couldn’t have been anticipated.”
The airline went on to say: “The cancellation of the flight was attributable to restrictions imposed on account of a worldwide pandemic.” No journey restrictions have been in place between the UK and Eire for the previous two months.
A spokesperson for British Airways informed The Unbiased: “Having seemed into this we’ve found we made an error in the best way we initially categorised numerous our cancelled flights.
“We’re extraordinarily sorry and we’re contacting prospects affected to difficulty the compensation.”
Passengers on flights cancelled by British Airways – or different airways – at lower than 14 days’ discover are suggested to say compensation on-line.
