After the Supreme Court refused the airline’s permission to appeal against a ruling on missed connections, thousands of passengers are in line for the payouts of €600 (£529) from Emirates for flight delays.
In retrospective payments the decision will cost the Dubai-based airline millions of pounds.The CAA’s chief executive said that it was time for Emirates to pay what is owed.
Known as the EC261 , the ruling will concern the European passengers’ rights legislation on compensation for delays in arrival of three hours or more.
It will be applicable in case of travellers whose outbound flight from the UK arrives in Dubai less than three hours late, but it has to be sufficiently late that they miss their onward connection.
However, the Emirates and several other airlines argued because the onward flight began outside the European Union and EU rules were not applicable.
Earlier, in October 2017, the Appeal Court rejected Emirates’ appeal on a test case.
The permission to appeal to the Supreme Court by the airline’s was rejected on the grounds that the case did not raise an arguable point of law and the European Court of Justice is deemed to have already provided a clear answer.
The airline will now be enforced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to amend its policies and practices and to pay claims it had previously refused.
Andrew Haines, the CAA’s chief executive stated that Emirates’ priority should be looking after its passengers, not finding ways in which they can prevent passengers accessing their rights.
After failing in their attempts to overturn the Court of Appeal Judgement means that millions of pounds worth of compensation is due to its customers and it was time for Emirates to pay what was owed.
Emirates, one of the biggest foreign airlines operating in the UK, has dozens of flights each week from Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow to Dubai, with Stansted soon to join the network.
An Emirates spokesperson was very disappointed by the Supreme Court’s ruling denying them leave to appeal against the earlier judgement of the High Court in relation to the application of Regulation EC261 to flights of non-Community carriers originating outside of the EU.
Being one of the world’s largest airlines they always complied to all legal requirements and based on the judgement the customers will be advised of the approach in the due course.
Tags: Andrew Haines, EC261, emirates
