A scheme set up to help passengers settle disputes over flights was overwhelmingly more likely to rule in favour of the holiday company than the customer, new figures have shown.
Just seven Tui passengers were told they were owed compensation by the adjudication scheme AviationADR, with 86% of Tui complaints being dismissed and passengers caught up in this year’s travel chaos forced to turn to the small claims court for help, according to Which?
Because of the mass cancellations of spring and early summer, hundreds of thousands of people were entitled to compensation because their flights were cancelled at the last minute or severely delayed, but passengers have told of their struggle to get the hundreds of pounds they believe they’re entitled to, even after taking their claim to the official dispute resolution scheme.
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Latest data shows that AviationADR, which is primarily funded by the airlines themselves, has ruled in favour of passengers just 33% of the time, so far in 2022 – down from 61% before the pandemic.
ADR is supposed to give consumers a quicker, cheaper way to raise disputes with companies, instead of expensive, time-consuming court action, but the most recent quarter, it ruled in favour of EasyJet and against its passengers 61% of the time and in favour of Ryanair 71% of the time.
The ADR scheme was introduced for flights in 2016 to give passengers the chance to escalate compensation claims – particularly for cancelled flights, denied boarding or severe delays – when airlines failed to pay up. Prior to 2016, the only option had been to either complain to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) – which had no legal powers to enforce claims – or to use the small claims court.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) authorised two private adjudication schemes in the UK: AviationADR (originally called The Retail Ombudsman) and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR). Both are primarily funded by the airlines themselves, although CEDR also charges passengers £25 if their claim is not upheld.
Airlines are free to choose which scheme they use, but the majority, including easyJet, Ryanair, Tui, Virgin Atlantic, WizzAir and others, are now with AviationADR. CEDR now only provides adjudication services for British Airways and SAS.
One EasyJet customer was promised £880 after she took her claim to AviationADR. When she still hadn’t received her money over two months after it was due, she went to court. The airline says that the delay was caused by air traffic restrictions, but it has paid her the £880 as a gesture of goodwill.
Another EasyJet passenger complained that AviationADR dismissed evidence he provided and he was awarded £1,816 by defaultwhen he took the case to court after easyJet failed to contest the claim. However, almost two months later easyJet managed to get that ruling set aside and said it would be fighting the claim, saying he could have transferred to a flight within 24 hours of his cancelled departure and it was not aware of the court hearing until it received the default judgement.
EasyJet told Which?: "We will always pay compensation when it is due, and where a passenger submits a claim for compensation, our team review this and respond based on the circumstances of the individual case. Customers can claim for any expenses and compensation via our easy-to-use webform on easyJet.com.
"Like other airlines, easyJet uses a CAA approved Alternative Dispute Resolution provider to offer dispute resolution services. Customers are able to raise their case through this scheme as an alternative to a court process and easyJet abides by its adjudications."
In 2017 the CAA said that AviationADR was ruling in favour of the consumer 71% of the time and added: ‘We are pleased to see that ADR providers are acting systematically to uphold the claims of aviation consumers where there is justification for doing so.’
However, the uphold rates plummeted during the pandemic. In 2019 AviationADR ruled in favour of the consumer 61% of the time, but in 2020 it fell to 38% and in 2021 just 24%. Despite the recent fall, the CAA said that it wasn’t concerned and that this ‘could be due to many different factors’.
The figures have been particularly poor when the airline switched to Aviation ADR from CEDR. In the first quarter of 2019, 1,490 Tui passengers were awarded compensation by CEDR - 90% of all those who made a claim. This compares to the most recent quarter, when only seven Tui passengers - 14% - were awarded compensation by AviationADR.
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