A court in Paris has awarded €900 compensation for an Israeli El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) passenger whose flight was delayed. The ruling won by the Belgian website Claimit once again stresses that El Al is not legally entitled to discriminate against Israeli passengers.
El Al argued in court that it operates according to Israeli law, which requires that passengers be compensated only if a flight is delayed by eight hours or more. El Al prefers Israeli law because EU law requires passengers to be compensated if a flight is delayed for three hours although it also covers foreign carriers operating flights to and from the EU. Compensation of €250-600 must be paid depending on the distance of the flight.
Carriers try their best to get out of such payments with such excuses as "special circumstances" which includes war, terror attacks, extreme weather or unexpected strikes, and can allow the airline to waive compensation. In this case El Al also tried this trick but failed.
Claimit has previously won compensations for Israeli passengers in similar cases in Germany and the Netherlands. In all three cases, El Al had agreed to compensate EU nationals on the delayed flights but not Israelis.
This latest case in France involved a flight in September 2015 which was delayed by more than three hours on its flight from Charles de Gaulle airport to Ben Gurion airport. EU law requires the carrier to pay each passenger €400 compensation (for a 3,500 kilometer flight). El Al dismissed compensation claims on the grounds that this was a Tel Aviv - Paris - Tel Aviv flight subject to Israeli law and not EU law and wanted the passenger to pay €1,000 court costs. The court rejected El Al's claims on the grounds that this was a flight from Paris to Tel Aviv and ordered El Al to pay the passenger €400 compensation and €500 costs. Claimit takes a 30% fee for handling the court case.
Claim It CEO Ralph Pais said, "We work with dozens of airline companies around the world and from my point of view El Al is ranked top with the doubtful title of not respecting the rights of its passengers."
"Even after the two previous rulings in Europe, El Al continues its policy of discrimination and is prepared to pay large amounts to lawyers representing them in Europe against passengers instead of respecting the law. One of El Al's claims in the European courts is that it is entitled to be judges solely in the Israeli courts - a claim that has been rejected by the argument that passengers have the right to decide where they want the court hearing on their rights toi be held providing there is a connection to the suit being filed."
Claimit says it has more lawsuits from Israeli passengers for delayed flights in the pipeline including in Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria.
Pais added, "We will continue to drag El Al into the courts until the carrier realizes that it is not allowed to discriminate against Israeli passengers.
Pais estimates that El Al owes Israeli passengers whose flights from Europe have been delayed about NIS 300 million but cautions against rushing to file suits before checking exactly when the official landing time was and how far back the delay occurred. Most European countries allow suits retroactive for two years but in some like Belgium it is only 12 months.
El Al said, "We protest the claims raised by ClaimIt's CEO and dismiss them out of hand. El Al operates according to accepted aviation law worldwide.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 1, 2017
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017