Air passenger information
Air Carrier Liability
This information notice summarises the liability rules applied by Community air carriers as required by Community legislation and the Montreal Convention.
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Important Flight Information
Facts about your journey
We plan our holidays many months in advance. Therefore we are unable to confirm flight timings in many instances. All land and air travel arrangements, airlines, aircraft types, timings, routings and arrival airports are provisional until confirmed on your tickets and may change after this due to circumstances beyond our control. Please bear this in mind when booking onward journeys in Ireland particularly domestic flights that cannot be changed or altered. We have indicated in the flight table (including train journeys), APPROXIMATE timings.
Your correct timings will be shown on your travel tickets, please check these carefully before travel.
Please note: Day flights operate between 0600 and 2000. Night flights operate between 2000 and 0600. Where we know in advance that a plane must stop at an airport en route for technical reasons such as refuelling or for a change of aircraft, we will indicate this on the flight table. Not all routes will be known at the time the brochure is printed, therefore it is possible that your journey may have to stop en route, and this is not shown. Compensation will not be paid should your flight stop en route for any reason.
Baggage allowance
Remains specified by charter airlines and must be strictly complied to avoid excess baggage charges or luggage being offloaded from the aircraft, as we will not accept claims in the respect.
Thomson Airways: From 1st May 2009 the maximum weight for one item of luggage will be reduced from the current EU limit of 32kg to 23kg. Those who have pre-paid for an allowance exceeding 23kg must check-in another bag. Baggage allowances will no longer be pooled (e.g. having 60kg shared between 3 pax). Each allowance is now an individual allowance. Infants under 2 yrs will now have their own luggage allowance of 10kg.
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Air carrier liability for passengers and their baggage
This information notice summarises the liability rules applied by Community air carriers as required by Community legislation and the Montreal Convention.
Compensation in the case of death or injury
There are no financial limits to the liability for passenger injury or death. For damages up to 100000 SDRs* (approximately €92,800) the air carrier cannot contest claims for compensation. Above that amount, the air carrier can defend itself against a claim by proving that it was not negligent or otherwise at fault.
Advance payments
If a passenger is killed or injured, the air carrier must make an advance payment, to cover immediate economic needs, within 15 days from the identification of the person entitled to compensation. In the event of death, this advance payment shall not be less than 16000 SDRs (approximately €15,080).
Passenger delays
In case of passenger delay, the air carrier is liable for damage unless it took all reasonable measures to avoid the damage or it was impossible to take such measures. The liability for passenger delay is limited to 4150 SDRs (approximately €3,828).
Baggage delays
In case of baggage delay, the air carrier is liable for damage unless it took all reasonable measures to avoid the damage or it was impossible to take such measures. The liability for baggage delay is limited to 1000 SDRs (approximately €936).
Destruction, loss or damage to baggage
The air carrier is liable for destruction, loss or damage to baggage up to 1000 SDRs (approximately €936) In the case of checked baggage, it is liable even if not at fault, unless the baggage was defective. In the case of unchecked baggage, the carrier is liable only if at fault.
Higher limits for baggage
A passenger can benefit from a higher liability limit by making a special declaration at the latest at check-in and by paying a supplementary fee.
Complaints on baggage
If the baggage is damaged, delayed, lost or destroyed, the passenger must write and complain to the air carrier as soon as possible. In the case of damage to checked baggage, the passenger must write and complain within seven days, and in the case of delay within 21 days, in both cases from the date on which the baggage was placed at the passenger's disposal.
Liability of contracting and actual carriers
If the air carrier actually performing the flight is not the same as the contracting air carrier, the passenger has the right to address a complaint or to make a claim for damages against either. If the name or code of an air carrier is indicated on the ticket, that air carrier is the contracting air carrier. Time limit for action: Any action in court to claim damages must be brought within two years from the date of arrival of the aircraft, or from the date on which the aircraft ought to have arrived.
Basis for the information
The basis for the rules described above is the Montreal Convention of 28 May 1999, which is implemented in the Community by Regulation (EC) No 2027/97 (as amended by Regulation (EC) No 889/2002) and national legislation of the Member States. *SDR (Special Drawing Rights) is a unit of account created by the International Monetary Fund in 1969, based on a basket of the world's leading currencies, principally US Dollars, Euros, Japanese Yen and Sterling.