Passengers owed £383 million in flight delays compensation in 2017

AirHelp, the number one flight delays compensation company, has revealed that over one million UK passengers have been affected by flight cancellations and severe delays of three hours or more. AirHelp has calculated that UK passengers are eligible to claim approximately £383,000,000 in compensation in 2017 (1^st January 2017 – 1^st November 2017).

The busiest travel month in the UK for 2017 was August, unsurprisingly falling on a busy month for tourism. Based on the percentage of disrupted flights departing from UK airports, Malaga experienced the highest volume of flight disruptions, with Amsterdam and Edinburgh following closely behind.

As the 2017 AirHelp Score unveiled earlier this year, airports in the UK are considered as some of the worst in the world with London Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh airports falling into the worst global airports for their quality and service, the number of delayed flights throughout the period, and track record on paying flight delay compensation. The AirHelp Score also unveiled that UK airlines Monarch and Ryanair were amongst some of the worst airlines in the rating. Interestingly, we have since seen Monarch go into administration in October and Ryanair fall into flight cancellation chaos over the last few months, affecting more than two million passengers and causing UK flight prices to dramatically increase.

Earlier in the year, even the UK’s flagship airline, British Airways faced two IT system failures within a space of a month, causing thousands of passengers plans to be disrupted and reportedly costing the airline approximately £100 million in compensation payout alone.

Some of the more unusual reasons cited by airlines for flight delays in the UK this year included a scorpion and mouse on board a plane, and a lack of toilet roll. In fact, the presence of the mouse and scorpion could have costed British Airways up to almost £154,000 in compensation charges on each incident alone.

Paloma Salmeron Planells, AirHelp representative comments: “2017 has been a big year for air passenger travel, particularly in the UK with the collapse of Monarch and Ryanair’s rota fiasco, which has played a big part in flight cancellations.

“In the event of a delayed or cancelled flight, passengers may be legally entitled to receive up to £510 in compensation fees from airlines. However, despite this less than 2% of travellers will file for this compensation, not knowing that they are eligible.

“We urge passengers who may have been affected by delays or cancellations this year to read up on their rights to ensure that they’re not missing out on the compensation that they’re legally entitled to. At AirHelp, our mission is to help passengers get the compensation that they rightfully deserve.”