British Airways has apologised to passengers for wrongly denying them compensation when flights had been canceled at quick discover and says will probably be contacting affected prospects to supply them cash.
BA is at present canceling greater than 100 home and European flights a day to and from its principal base at London Heathrow resulting from workers shortages. Passengers already booked on the affected flights are often given a number of weeks’ warning, however some cancellations are made at quick discover.
Below European air passengers’ rights guidelines, generally known as EC261, if a flight is canceled lower than two weeks prematurely, vacationers are usually 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 canceled 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 Might was canceled because of the worldwide pandemic brought on by Covid-19.
“The Covid-19 pandemic is an exterior issue, which is past the management of the airline and is an ‘extraordinary circumstance’. It’s not 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 brought on by restrictions imposed because of a world 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 regarded into this we have found we made an error in the best way we initially categorised a variety of our canceled flights.
“We’re extraordinarily sorry and we’re contacting prospects affected to situation the compensation.”
Passengers on flights canceled by British Airways – or different airways – at lower than 14 days’ discover are suggested to say compensation on-line.
