Flights Delay Compensation 261/2004: A Challenge for Airline Companies?

Globally, the large number of tourists, insufficient number of pilots, strikes or high traffic at airports, have generated an increase in the number of delayed flights. In the first 6 months of 2018, it is estimated that around 4.5 million passengers (compared to 3.2 million passengers in the first semester of 2017) were affected by cancellations, delays and overbookings of flights, while the eligible value compensation is approaching 2 billion euros. For these events, principally attributable to the air carrier, certain passenger rights have been established at European Union level, detailed in EC Regulation No 261/2004 establishing common rules for passenger compensation and aid in the case of refused boarding and cancelation or lengthy delay of flights and repealing Regulation (EEC) 295/91. Although the regulation applies only to passengers, airline companies suffer huge losses owing to a volatile setting that included incidents which cannot be attributed to them such as airport, ATC, third parties strikes, unforeseen technical issues, understaffed ATC personnel or bad weather conditions.