Flight delay compensation must be in sterling

Airlines must pay claimants for flight delays in pound sterling and not euros, a court has ruled.

For some time Easyjet has been sending compensation directly to passengers and their representatives in euro cheques. The low-cost airline has continued with this practice despite payment being requested in pounds sterling by English claimants.

Lawyers argued that in doing so, passengers are forced to wait between two and five weeks for payment to clear, accept unfavourable bank exchange rates, and pay admin fees on the conversion, leaving them worse off than they should be.

In a test case on behalf of at least 30 claimants before the County Court in Liverpool, a judge was asked to determine whether Easyjet was entitled to force claimants to accept payments in euros when making claims for delayed or cancelled flights under Regulation 261/2004. In addition, the court was also asked to decide what the exchange date rate ought to be in pounds sterling.

The court determined that the airline should have paid passengers in sterling, and not euros.

Nicholas Parkinson, a solicitor-advocate at Hughes Walker Solicitors and who acted for FlightDelays.co.uk on behalf of the claimants, said: 'The net effect of this may seem negligible in isolation; however, it can easily amount to deductions of around £40 per claim than had they been paid in sterling. This is not insignificant when considering these claims are often only worth £200/€250 to start with. A family of five may therefore collectively receive £200 less than they had bargained for.'

Parkinson added that by paying in euros, Easyjet did not save any money, but forced claimants to accept less and wait longer to receive less. 'There was no logical justification for this nor did we feel that there was any clear legal authority dealing with this issue in the context of payment for breach of statutory duty under an EU regulation. We therefore issued proceedings for around 30 passengers for whom euro cheques had been paid. We also retained a large number of euro cheques on pre-litigation matters pending the outcome of this test case.'

Claims for flight compensation have increased following several recent high profile decisions against the airline industry. Parkinson said Easyjet and other airlines are current sifting through hundreds of claims that are being presented either by litigants in person, solicitors or claims management companies, all of whom may benefit from this latest judgment.

Easyjet have confirmed that it does not intend to appeal the decision.

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John van der Luit-Drummond is legal reporter for Solicitors Journal
john.vanderluit@solicitorsjournal.co.uk | @JvdLD