ANP
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Floor Ligtvoet
editor Nieuwsuur
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Floor Ligtvoet
editor Nieuwsuur
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Of crowds at airports is of course very annoying for travelers, but claim clubs benefit from it. Companies such as EUclaim, Vlucht-verraagd.nl and Aviclaim are seeing significant growth in the number of travelers claiming money back from an airline through them.
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Since the beginning of April, the three agencies have accepted more than €38 million in passenger claims for delayed or canceled flights, they say. news hour know.
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If you do not have your staff in order yourself, you cannot invoke force majeure.
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Flight-delayed.nl will submit almost 70,000 claims worth 23 million euros to airlines. That is more than twice as many as in the same months in 2019. The agency mainly received claims for KLM, Transavia and Easyjet.
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EUclaim requests 10 million euros in compensation from airlines and 1 million for refunds on canceled flights. At Aviclaim, this involves a total of 4.5 million euros.
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These are busy and golden times, admits Tom van Bokhoven of Vlucht-verraagd.nl when asked. “But I didn’t really hope that things would go so wrong at the airport.”
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Claims company gets at least quarter
When an airline pays out a claim, the claim company engaged receives a hefty percentage. Its height varies between 25 percent and 29 percent. Sometimes the companies also charge extra for administration costs or when the claim has to be fought in court. If the airline does not pay anything or the case is lost, the claims office will also receive nothing. EUclaim says that 97 percent of the claims are successful.
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Often travelers turn to a claims agency because they are tired of waiting endlessly with the airline in hopes of getting what they are entitled to under EU rules. Sometimes claim companies for travelers ask for a refund of the ticket amount in the event of a canceled flight. But much more often travelers want to be compensated through the agencies for the loss of time due to the delay or cancellation and for the extra costs incurred.
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Airlines are obliged to reimburse the extra costs incurred by travelers in all reasonableness, such as a hotel stay, food and drinks. Unless there is a force majeure situation.
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Force of the majority?
In the experience of EUclaim, legal action is needed in one in three claims to force airlines to pay. Flight-delayed.nl expects to have to sue the airline in at least 15 percent of current cases.
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EUclaim takes most legal action against southern European airlines such as Vueling, TAP Air Portugal and low-cost airline Ryanair. In such a case, for example, society is convinced that there is force majeure and that it therefore does not have to pay, says Paul Vaneker of EUclaim. “Or they find the extra costs incurred for a passenger, for example, unreasonable or not necessary.”
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However, airlines cannot automatically speak of an emergency with the current chaos at Schiphol, says Vaneker. “They also struggle with staff shortages. If you don’t have your staff in order yourself, then that just belongs to your business. Then you can’t rely on force majeure.”
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