Flight delay advice regarding Montreal Convention

emptysuit

Hi All, hoping that someone can fill in the blanks for me. I have put in two claims for flight delay compensation, one for a 4 hour delay in 2008 to Dom Rep with TUI and one for a 17 hour delay in September 2012 with Small Planet. I sent the templates provided on MSE to both and this has resulted in both airlines declaring extraordinary circumstances. Having sent and received much correspondence from both refusing any sort of compensation I have now issued a county court summons to both. In addition to the usual "extraordinary circumstances" in the filed defences this has provoked a response from TUI quoting from the Montreal Convention stating that " The right to damages shall be extinguished if action is not brought within a period of two years" I am therefore hoping someone can expand on the way around this as it seems that many claims are being entertained back to 2005 and there are numerous well documented cases in the press/online that go back to 2009 and beyond that bhave been successfully won aginst the airlines, indeed MSE advises that claims can be made back to 2005. I know that new law regarding Extraordinary Circumstances is being introduced next year to dispose of this grey area and have my case ready regarding this aspect but would very much like to hear from anyone who knows whether Regulation (EC) 261/2004 from October 2012 supersedes the Montreal Convention regarding European flights and if the airlines can use the Montreal Convention or quote from it in their defence? It would seem that the advice that airlines do not want to spend money to defend the claims or are simply to busy to deal with them is no longer true in both my cases the county court papersw have made them emply top airline law lawyers and come back on time with guns blazing!!

Many thanks in advance

Caz3121

I would love a £ for every time someone posts the same question about 2 years

OP I suggest you to the Thomson thread and read that, you will find many many people getting the same response from TUI and asking the same question which is answered over and over in the same thread

Vauban

The relevant ECJ judgement (or at least the press release) on the applicability of the Montreal Convention to 261/04 is here: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-11/cp120150en.pdf

emptysuit

Thanks all, have found everything now on the Thomas Cook thread as recommended. Sorry to have provoked eye rolling reactions!!