There are three different legal systems, which govern the rights and remedies of domestic and iinternational airline passengers: U.S. tariffs and contracts of carriage, European Union Regulation No. 261/2004 (EU 261) and the Montreal Convention (Article 19). Unfortunately for U.S. citizens, the EU ranks first in consumer protection, followed by the Montreal Convention, while the U.S. system comes in dead last with, in effect, no form of mandatory passenger compensation for flight delays with the exception of airline oversales, 14 CFR Part 250. This explains why in several recent flight delay cases such as Giannopoulos v. Iberia,2 passengers suffering injuries because of flight delays have encouraged the courts to look to EU 261 instead of the U.S. tariff system as authority for proper flight delay compensation.

Who Pays for Flight Delays?

Not long ago the answer to “Who pays?” was that the passenger paid since being delayed was to be expected when flying on commercial aircraft. For example in 1992 the Southern District of New York held in Chendrimada v. Air India3 that the passengers were forced to stay on a delayed aircraft for 11½ hours but there was no breach of contract for the delivery of timely air transportation since flight schedules and timetables did not constitute a warranty or guarantee of punctuality.

U.S. Tariffs

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