Stansted Airport : flights delays, cancelled, compensation…
Commercial air travel is often fraught with incidents of flight delays and cancellations. These can cause passengers and travellers everything from great inconvenience to even financial and property losses and damages. At the London Stansted Airport, this is no exception. If you have encountered an incident with any of the airlines operating out of Stansted, you may be entitled to claiming indemnification with them for up to potentially €600.
Generally speaking, the overall figure you can receive through your claim depends heavily upon the circumstance of your complaint and the length of your intended flight. Indeed, with such a busy airport, there are quite a wide variety of incidents that can occur which could merit a claim for compensation. In the vast majority of cases, such incidents arise in the form of flight cancellations or flight delays. Cancellations can occur due to things beyond airlines companies’ control, but more often than not they are due to direct error or mismanagement on the airline’s part.
When any such incidents occur, it is absolutely paramount to be aware of your rights as a passenger under both the regulations of the Civil Aviation Authority of the UK, as well as EU regulations themselves. When an airline cancels or delays a flight, scores of people are inconvenienced and additional unforeseen expenses, financial damages, and property losses occur.
During your travels, this could always be you. Indeed, that is precisely why the legislation exists to protect both your rights and your financial situation during your travels as a supplement to insurance and as a minimum protective baseline.
Fortunately, large-scale cancellations of booked flights and major delays are extreme and uncommon cases. However, when they occur you have upwards of 6 years from the time of the incident to file a claim with the airline responsible for your losses. Many airlines deliberately make the indemnification process as lengthy and discouraging as they can for individuals to help maintain peak profitability. Because of this, it is in your best interest to submit your claim for reimbursement at the earliest possible opportunity you can and to make sure your claim is as clear and concise as possible. With these, they ensure the best results and are likelier to gain you the highest possible compensation for your situation.
Don’t ever be discouraged, Idemniflight has the answers and guidance you need to achieve this! If during your travel through Stansted you have encountered a cancelled flight or a delayed flight and incurred financial losses and unexpected expenses such as lodging costs, our experienced team can help. We can provide you with first-class guidance in the field to give your reimbursement claim the strongest and most hassle-free case it can. You deserve your hard-earned compensation with swift and decisive speed!
Getting Compensation
Per EU and UK regulations, if you have encountered a significant inconvenience and financial damages directly caused by the airline in charge of your flight, you are entitled to submit a formal complaint to that airline for reimbursement. Your right to complain for compensation is provided under this legislation.
Enacted in the year 2004, EC Regulation 261 has mandated that all formal complaints and indemnification claims can be lodged with the airline responsible for your cancelled or delayed flight. Thanks to these laws you are able to recoup some of your losses incurred when your flight is cancelled or delayed and when you have to scramble to book accommodations or alternative flights to remain on your personal travelling schedule. However, in some rare cases, these claims are not fully resolved until taken to the appropriate level of court.
At Idemniflight we have all the resources and advice you need to give your compensation claim the strength and structure it needs to eliminate the hassle and help prevent the need for a lengthy legal battle.
Compensation for Flight Delays
For flight delays, EU regulation does not impose a fixed and definite rate for the amount of compensation an offending airline should award you upon a successful claim. Instead, it has a rather fluid and variable one dependant upon different aspects of your incident with that airline.
Indeed, the primary factor that modifies and determines your compensation amount is how long your flight is and whether it is within the EU or from overseas into the European Union itself. Stansted is quite a busy international airport, and as such many flights are a long distance from outside the EU. Fortunately, this flexibility built into the legislations ensures protection for both EU-only and EU-intercontinental travellers passing through.
Getting into the raw numbers, flights of no greater distance than 1,500km are capable of yielding a compensation amount of €250. That amount can be raised further to €400 even if your cancellation or delay was a flight of 1,500km between two EU member states.
However, the same regulations also stipulate that any flights with non-EU destinations at or exceeding 3,500km are eligible for the maximum reimbursement of €600. There is an important additional stipulation required of this, however: the flight cancellation event or delay must last longer than four hours.
As with any legislation, this can be confusing at times and even overwhelming if your situation is already complex enough as it is. Idemniflight is with you every step of the way to answer any questions you may have to help clarify regulations and compensation amounts.
As mentioned, both EU and non-EU travellers are protected under the law when airlines directly cause them financial losses and/or property losses and damages. Travellers passing through Stansted benefit from this very same protection like all others.
When to Claim Compensation?
There is some very good news for you! EU regulation permits a sizeable time window of up to 6 years to file your claim of reimbursement with the offending airline. This provides ample time indeed, however it is never a bad idea to prepare your case and submit your complaint as soon after the time of the incident as possible. Time is not always an ally in retaining all necessary materials needed for a robust and hassle-free indemnification claim. Above all else, filing earlier means it can reimburse you earlier if successful.
How to Claim Compensation
When faced with a damaging incident that an airline is directly responsible for, travellers have quite a number of options with which to tackle the situation, including going head-on and submitting your claim yourself. As mentioned and as you might have guessed, most airlines go out of their way to make this process as fatiguing and discouraging as possible.
Consider Idemniflight, our team strives for only the best levels of service in guiding and aiding you in submitting your claim to the offending airline. We have extensive experience with assisting customers in gaining their reimbursements across the EU and with the Civilian Aviation Authority in the UK. Their inner-workings and nuances can be daunting to the individual at times and we are happy to help you navigate them to ensure your compensation claim is quick and free of any lengthy battles. With Idemniflight, your compensation claim could not be any closer at hand!
Claiming Compensation: What can I get?
To further explore compensation rates as described above, the distance of your flight is indeed at the crux of how your compensation amount is determined. Errors and decision making by your airline that directly causes cancellations or delays of your flight are the most common cause of traveller claims and the general rates are as follows:
- £220 for journeys of 1,500km or under
- £350 for journeys of 1,501km to 3,500km
- £530 for journeys of 3,501km or longer
Furthermore, any flight delays that are of a length between 3 to 4 hours are most often likely to see the rate of compensation fall by half of the figures above. The importance of the duration of time for your delay and the circumstances are equally important as flight length. If this applies to you, you may stand to expect compensation rates within this bracket:
- £110 for journeys of 1,500km or under
- £175 for journeys of 1,501km to 3,500km
- £265 for journeys of 3,501km or longer
When discussing your expectations and preparing your claim, it may be a good idea to take into account the distance between Stansted and your destination prior to that flight’s cancellation or delay. Never hesitate to contact us with any questions you have during the indemnification process.
Claim Compensations during Worker Strikes
Worker strikes, we all know of them, we all hear of them. Anytime new fiscal budgets and annual salaries are being drafted in major industries, there are chances of union strikes arising when two parties are unable to come to agreements. The commercial aviation industry is no different in this reality, unfortunately. Indeed, it is often one of the most widely reported types of strikes due to the scale factor of just how many flights such strikes can cause to be cancelled or delayed.
Unfortunately, in the general sense, airlines cannot be held directly responsible when workers’ strikes arise. Strikes can cause terminal shutdowns and even brink entire airports to a standstill. According to the EU regulatory bodies and the CAA, strikes are acknowledged as outside of the general control of any airline or airport’s authority.
However, there is good news from this. This technicality does not at all render compensation claims all but impossible during aviation worker strikes. When a strike is underway at an airport, it is an airline’s job to manage around the event to ensure service is as uninterrupted as possible; any errors made by the airline during this can still constitute a claimable incident for reimbursement. Checkers not being present at a designated area resulting in property loss via lost luggage and your assigned seat being mistakenly given to another passenger are just some of the few possible events that can still occur during strikes that are eligible for a refund under the law.
As you can see, whilst they are much more difficult, compensation claims from incidents during worker strikes are not unheard of and are indeed possible. With our team at your side, however, any such claims are much easier to sort and submit, leaving you with less sweat and more relief!
About Stansted Airport
London Stansted Airport was constructed at the height of WWII in 1943 as an airbase for the Allied air efforts against Nazi Germany, where it was known as RAF Stansted Mountfitchet. At the war’s end, its transition to civilian use was not immediate; it continued to see military use into the first days of the Cold War until 1949. In that year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation became responsible for the airport and its infrastructure and the first heavy commercial usage was realised.
Stansted is considered the third most prominent airport serving the London metropolitan area behind Heathrow and Gatwick airports. In 1991 the modern terminal building became operational and a train connection for passengers was made via a railway bearing the same name as the parent airport.
The airport has had a rather mixed history with long-haul flight providers. Due to various reasons including the economy and operating costs, a few major airlines such as American Airlines and MASjet offering flights to North America ceased operation from the airport in favour of the other major airports serving London. Some smaller airlines offering long-haul flights have historically migrated their service from this airport to Gatwick Airport, especially in the 2000s.
One major incident of flight cancels at this airfield was the 2008 Plane Stupid environmentalist group protest whose inhibition of the taxiway caused 52 cancellations en masse.
In the current day, from Essex, the airport’s operating airlines offer destinations and arrivals ranging from all over Europe to Turkey, Israel, Dubai, and Amristar, India. Alongside numerous passenger airlines, a smaller roster of cargo airlines also operates flights through the site. The aerodrome is a focus city for airline companies such as easyJet, Ryanair, and Titan Airways. In 2017 alone, the airport saw just under 26 million passengers pass through its terminals, and in 2018 the single busiest route to and from Stansted was Dublin Airport.
How Long Have I got to Claim?
To say speed is of the essence with filing your claim with the airline would not be entirely correct perhaps; indeed, it would be more constructive to describe it as speed is of the essence for the best and quickest results. You have a full 6 years, 2190 days from the time of the incident to submit your claim, giving you plenty of flexibility.
Get Professional Help!
Here at Idemniflight, we pride ourselves as one of the best sources for compensation claim guidance and advice in the aviation industry. Our emphasis on superior customer service is well-exemplified with our robust and intuitive website. From there, you have easy access to our team and an active forum of helpful topics and various situations similar to your own you can browse for further insight.
Beyond that, we are able to be reached by whichever means is most convenient to you! If you prefer to correspond with us via paper letter, our postal address is available. You can also start your claim through us via our telephone and email. When something goes awry in commercial aviation and you are faced with inconvenience and financial damages, we at Idemniflight are eager to fight for you to secure you the maximum compensation possible. Don’t wait, close that 6 year window today and get your compensation claim off to the best start with Idemniflight!
