Six basic questions and answers concerning earthing of Boeing 737 MAX and compensation options.
When is the right to compensation for a cancelled or delayed flight for the reason of earthing of a Boeing 737 MAX type aircraft constituted? Can I claim compensation for a cancelled flight if I have bought a package and the flight is cancelled by the Smartwings or another airline company and with it my package is cancelled too? Is there any protection against flight cancellation or delay? See below for the answers to these and other questions.
The world of air transport is certainly shattered by the current issue of earthing of aircraft type Boeing 737 MAX for the reason of the recent air accidents of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines. As the accidents were similar and for the reason of their subsequent investigation there is a worldwide ban of operation of these air-planes until recall. Consequences of this decision have manifested themselves early for there were around 300x air-planes of this type in operation around the world at the time of the earthing notification. In Europe about 20% of these air-planes are operated, which makes more than 50 vessels, used by Norwegian Air (18), TUI Group (15), Smartwings (7), Iceland Air (5), LOT Airlines (5) and Air Italy (3). And this lit must still be extended by the airline companies significantly affecting aviation in Europe, such as Turkish Airlines (11) or Flydubai (11).
Flyers from the Czech Republic have certainly been most affected by the flight restrictions concerning Smartwings (former Travel Service), operating their own lines as well as regular lines of the Czech Airlines (ČSA). In the summer month this company is the main transport service partner to local or Slovak travel agencies as the provider of charter flights to Greece, Turkey, Spain and other holiday destinations. The first negative impact of the restriction placed on this company came on the very day of the aircraft earthing, when two Smartwings air-planes had to interrupt their flight to the Czech Republic and land on alternative airports outside the EU. For the passengers using them this means several-hour delays of their original plans. Soon afterwards the airline company announced cancellation of their regular line Prague – Dubai – Prague. The latest recent information about restrictions in the flight schedules of Smartwings concerns reduces capacity of summer seasonal flights by 8%. All these limitations already now negatively affect thousands of travellers.