Still Waiting for Cash Because of the Ash
Thousands of travellers are still waiting to see the money they are owed because of the Icelandic volcano which erupted in Spring this year.
The ash cloud covered much of Western Europe making flying hazardous as granular matter passing through the engines would cause damage to the moving parts of the engines and conceivably damage antennae vital for navigation. The problem is that many companies who passengers expect to be accountable should their travel plans go wrong are looking to pass responsibility to some-one else leading to delays as decisions of accountability are made in regard to people’s compensation claims.
Investigations into the tactics used by the airlines, travel agencies and insurers include airlines capping the amounts they are paying out despite the losses incurred by the customers, leading to them being paid only a fraction of the losses they actually accrued, delays leading to February 2011 at the earliest, some are being made to deal with foreign compensation boards and forced to foot the bills for their own translators and making themselves contactable by phone only, on premium rate lines whilst not responding to emails.
The delays and losses that passengers and those who never got to travel haven’t been all bad news though, many airlines have reported huge profits over recent weeks, although one cannot say whether that had anything to do with the fuel savings of not moving any aircraft for ten days and the interest accruing on money legitimately claimed, that they have still so far failed to return.
People are inclined to blame the airlines but it was necessary to ban flying over that period, the decision wasn’t theirs, it was a Europe-wide decision not to fly through the ash. However, the delays and tactics used to deny people recompense do seem to be deliberate; airlines passing the problem over to travel insurance companies, both claiming that it was “an act of God” or blaming the governments that cancelled the flights, anything they could to prove they weren’t liable.
Yet Ryanair, who cancelled 10,000 flights costing £41.5m reported profits up 17% to £386m. EasyJet claimed the volcano had cost them £65m but were able to claw their way into a profit of £152m.
Written by EcoGirl on December 8th, 2010 with
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