TRAVELLERS could be owed £4.5million in refunds from airlines for cancelled flights, according to Which?
An investigation by the consumer experts found that airlines have run up millions in County Court Judgements (CCJs) after failing to pay passenger expenses and refunds.
GettyTravellers are owed millions of pounds according to research by Which?[/caption]
It found CCJs collectively worth more than £4.5 million have piled up against airlines including EasyJet, Ryanair, Tui and Wizz Air, according to official records.
Wizz Air accounts for almost half the total amount, despite carrying fewer passengers than some of its rivals.
A CCJ can be handed to a person or company if they owe someone money and a court has formally decided that the cash must be paid back.
Wizz Air has 1,601 outstanding CCJs worth almost £2.2 million, according to Registry Trust.
The Trust maintains the official statutory register of judgments, orders, and fines for England and Wales on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.
The register also shows that both EasyJet and Ryanair have high numbers of outstanding judgments.
EasyJet has 884, amounting to £611,436 and Ryanair has 840 worth £549,892.
Tui has fewer, at, 313, but they are worth almost £1.3million.
Easyjet said it has no known unpaid CCJs and that the register has not been updated to reflect its current position.
Jet2 has four ‘outstanding’ judgments amounting to £1,434.
Meanwhile, BA has 82 totalling £96,042.
A spokesperson for the official register of court judgments said: “Even when a judgment is paid, the judgment will continue to show as ‘unsatisfied’ until the court records are updated.”
It added that defendants – airlines in this case – are responsible for providing updates about the payment status of CCJs.
Which? said the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) “must take a tougher stance with airlines that fail to pay passengers the money they are owed”.
Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said: “The scale of court judgments piling up against major airlines is a result of a system where the odds are stacked against passengers and airlines feel empowered to routinely ignore their legal obligations to pay out refunds and compensation.”
A spokesperson for Wizz Air said: “We are taking this matter extremely seriously, doing all we can to fix these issues and settle all outstanding cases as quickly as possible.
“Customers can contact us directly using our website or app to provide information about an outstanding judgment.”
A TUI spokesperson said that the number of judgements on the register doesn’t always show the amounts owed.
“TUI would like to assure customers that we are addressing these issues. Our delay claims team is currently working through any outstanding cases with customers directly.”
Ryanair and British Airways did not respond when approached for comment.
How to file a claim if you’re owed a refund
If you think you’re owed money by a business, you can make a court claim to get your cash back.
How much you’ll be charged in fees to file your case depends on how much you’re suing the company for.
The fee will go up in stages depending on the claim amount – the highest fee you’ll pay is £10,000 for a claim of £200,000 or more.
Who could get a refund?
If your flight is cancelled by a company, you automatically have the right to a full refund or a replacement flight, Citizens Advice says.
If you have had your trip cancelled but have not received any of the above, it’s worth seeing if you can make a claim.
But if your flight was cancelled as a result of Covid, you might find it trickier to get your cash back.
Lockdown rules made it illegal for almost all passengers to board a plane.
That meant airlines were not technically responsible for cancellations – creating a legal loophole.
British Airways and Ryanair refused to give passengers their money back.
An investigation was launched by the Competitions and Markets Authority whether the airlines should have offered money back to holidaymakers who couldn’t legally take flights because of Covid.
But the airlines have since been told they don’t have to refund customers for these lockdown flights – marking a bitter blow to out-of-pocket customers.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected]