EVALUATION OF THE EU REGULATION 261/2004 ON RIGHTS OF AIR PASSENGERS IN THE EVENT OF DELAYED AND CANCELLED FLIGHTS

Abstract

In contracts of carriage by air, there are bound to be challenges, disagreements and possible recourse to litigation. There is no complete uniformity in substantive and procedural laws binding air carriers and passengers in the event of disagreement as the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions recognized the applicability of local circumstance and contractual peculiarity. To fill in this gap, the European Community Parliament enacted a common regulation 261/2004 stating the obligations of air carriers to passengers and the right of passengers in the event of certain categories of breach of contract of carriage within the region. Following conflicting interpretations of the regulation, an Interpretative Guidelines was established in 2016 to clarified grey areas in the regulation. Nonetheless, the substantive rights seem to be defective in certain areas. This paper therefore seeks to evaluate the provisions of the regulation by highlighting the inadequacies therein. The paper found out that there is no provision for delay of passengers at the tarmac, even as the distinction between a delayed and cancelled flight remained clumsy. This paper recommends the amendment of certain provisions of the regulation to meet the expectations of air passengers.