Common Contracts

Montreal’s damage and Brussels’s compensation

February 28th, 2017

• Filed
  February 28th, 2017

Abstract: In the European context, two legal instruments are used to regulate compensation for damage occasioned by delay in the carriage by air of passengers. The way in which these two instruments interact is unclear, and some of the highest courts interpret them in contradictory ways. As a result, air passengers’ rights are ambiguous, and air carriers’ liability limits are vague. This paper addresses these issues from a damage/compensation point of view. A proposal is made that could create more legal certainty both for the hundreds of millions of passengers that are carried each year in the European Union (EU) and for the airlines that must bear the cost of these European air passenger rights – which equates to around four billion euros annually.1