Flight delayed by Hawaiian Airlines: Claim compensation

Your Hawaiian Airlines flight is announced delayed at departure, what to do? A European regulation takes your situation into account.

If your flight arrives at its destination at least 3 hours late and departs from an airport located on Community territory or provided by a Community carrier, you can obtain lump-sum compensation without establishing damage, on the basis on Article 7 of EC Regulation No 261/2004 as for a flight cancellation.

Indeed, according to the CJEU, “passengers of delayed flights and those of canceled flights must be considered to be in comparable situations for the purposes of compensation under the Regulation”. Thus, passengers who are victims of a delay of at least 3 hours must receive a lump sum compensation under the same conditions as passengers who are victims of a cancellation.

However, the carrier may escape payment of this compensation by justifying extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 of February 11, 2004 establishes common rules for compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and cancellation or long delay of a flight.

Depending on the circumstances, the regulations require Hawaiian Airlines or other airlines to provide passengers with assistance, to offer rerouting and reimbursement, to offer lump sum compensation of up to 600 euros per passenger and to inform passengers of their rights under the Regulation.

These obligations are incumbent on the operating air carrier performing or intending to perform a flight. This principle applies not only when the contract of carriage has been concluded directly between the passenger concerned and the air carrier, but also when this contract has been concluded through a third party, such as a travel agency.

The amount of the fixed compensation under EC Regulation No. 261/2004 is set according to the following scale:

– €250 for all flights of 1,500 km or less;

– €400 for all intra-Community flights of 1,500 km and for all other flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km;

– €600 for other flights.

This compensation is supplemented, as the case may be, by:

– Reimbursement of the ticket or rerouting to your final destination;

– the cost of refreshments, catering and hotel accommodation taking into account the waiting time;

– the possibility of making two telephone calls free of charge or of sending two telexes, two faxes or two electronic messages free of charge.

Which flights are affected?

Hawaiian Airlines flights departing from airports located in the European Union (*), Norway, Iceland or Switzerland, regardless of the nationality of the air carrier and regardless of your final destination,

This also applies to flights operated entirely outside the European Union (*), Norway, Iceland or Switzerland, only (cumulative conditions):

– as part of a connecting flight, consisting of two flights and having given rise to a single reservation, departing from the European Union (*), Norway, Iceland or Switzerland and arriving at from an airport located in a third State (**) via the airport of another third State (**), and if

– the first flight is operated by a Community air carrier, and if you are the victim of a delay at your final destination of three hours or more originating from the second flight, insured, within the framework of a sharing agreement code, by a carrier established in a third country (**).

(*): Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic Czech, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden

(**) : States other than those members of the European Union, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.

Note: New Caledonia, French Polynesia, St Barthelemy and St Pierre and Miquelon are French territories to which the Treaty establishing the European Union does not apply. These territories are not part of the European Union. For the application of Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Saint-Barthelemy and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon must therefore be considered as “third States” to the European Union.