Finnair and passengers wrangle over compensation for ash delays

Airline expects to maintain reputation, because “people are smart and understand”

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Finnair passengers who were stuck in various cities unable to fly home because of the flight bans caused by airborne volcanic ash have been criticising the airline for its way of handling the situation.
      Finnair has been criticised for arrogance, poor communications, and rapidly-changing advice.
      Finnair only began compensating stranded passengers for lodging and food expenses as of Thursday last week when the flight ban was lifted.
     
A number of other airlines, including SAS, Blue 1, and Ryanair, have promised to compensate for passenger costs from the preceding days as well.
      “The airlines interpret an EU decree in their own ways. Decrees and the rules sometimes clash with each other. We cannot be like a carte blanche when we do not know how long”, says Christer Haglund, head of communications at Finnair.
      Under EU rules, airlines are liable for lodging and food expenses in exceptional situations. Finnair says that the obligation applies to rerouting. In the ash crisis, new routes were not possible.
     
At the Finnish Consumer Agency, there were about 20 complaints about the ash crisis. More are expected, as consumer advisors have heard about 70 complaints so far.
      Anja Peltonen, the director of the agency, feels that both airlines and passengers are liable for compensation.
      She says that the agency is holding discussions with both Finnair and the European Union on how the costs are to be shared.
      “We hope that a common solution can be found at the EU level”, Peltonen says.
     
Finnair would also like to get clear instructions for similar exceptional situations.
      “Having rules would be good from everyone’s point of view. Compensation needs to be defined in proportion to the price of the product. In matters of compensation, hindsight is easiest”, Haglund says.
     
On Wednesday last week passengers on five Finnair long-haul flights were asked to sign release forms, renouncing future claims for compensation concerning connection flights.
      The text on the form stated that the customer is conscious of taking a deliberate risk, and that there might be no connection flights from Helsinki.
      “I think that it was very fair and important to tell the customers that it was not possible to guarantee a direct flight onward. The Consumer Agency might feel differently, but it is permissible to use common sense”, Haglund explains.
     
The Finnish Consumer Agency feels that the release form is invalid.
      “The form is exaggerated self-protection. If passengers have statutory rights, they cannot be eliminated with these kinds of contracts”, Peltonen says.
     
The week-long problems with flights affected travel plans of 140,000 Finnair passengers. The company calculates that it suffered losses worth EUR 20 million.
      On Monday only 100 customers were still waiting for a flight back to Finland. Most of them were in Bangkok.
     
Haglund says that Finnair has received more positive feedback than complaints. The company does not believe that its policy on compensation will hurt its reputation, or its business.
      “It might have a short-term effect, but Finnair’s image has not been portrayed in a negative manner in China, India, Germany, or elsewhere. People are smart enough to understand that nothing could have done anything about this”, Christer Haglund says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Flight restrictions in Finland to remain almost unchanged UPDATED: Helsinki-Vantaa open from Thursday afternoon (22.4.2010)
  Air traffic returning to normal - all bans lifted in Finland (23.4.2010)
  Finnish government preparing for crisis readiness over air traffic chaos (19.4.2010)
  Volcano: air traffic restrictions for several days (UPDATED) (16.4.2010)

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