Legal Aid for New Immigrants in Montreal

In terms of liability, the first thing that needs to be clear is the airline's liability for breach of contract. China's civil aviation law only stipulates the principle of how to bear the responsibility, so it can only refer to the provisions of the transportation rules according to the contract law. There are several ways of acceptance stipulated in the contract law: continue to perform. After the delay, if the passenger wishes, the airline shall continue to perform its transportation obligations. When taking remedial measures to delay or cancel flights, airlines should arrange follow-up flights or refund tickets according to passengers' requirements. Compensation for Losses If a passenger proves that he has indeed suffered property losses due to flight delay, the airline shall compensate him. There are two points to be clarified here. First of all, the prerequisite for taking responsibility is that losses have been caused, and the carrier will only take responsibility if the delay causes losses. If the delay does not cause any loss, the carrier will not be liable. This requires passengers to prove the losses caused by the delay. If the passenger can't prove this, the carrier can't be held responsible. Moreover, the loss caused by the delay must be the actual economic loss, excluding the mental loss caused by the delay to the passengers. Second, this kind of compensation is a kind of limit compensation, that is, no matter how much losses are caused, under normal circumstances, airlines only bear the liability for compensation within the maximum limit prescribed by law. According to Article 128 of the Civil Aviation Law, the liability limits of domestic air carriers under various circumstances shall be formulated by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and promulgated for implementation after being approved by the State Council. But so far, this legal document has not been issued. In practice, only1993165438+1October 29th, the State Council revised and issued the Interim Provisions on Compensation for Personal Injury of Domestic Air Transport Passengers, which only stipulated the compensation limit for death or injury of passengers in the aircraft or in the process of getting on or off the aircraft. China's Civil Aviation Passenger and Luggage Domestic Transportation Rules stipulates the carrier's obligations in abnormal situations such as flight delay from the service point of view, and distinguishes between non-carrier reasons and carrier reasons. In the latter case, the service scope is limited to "providing meals, accommodation and other services". It can be said that in this respect, China's current laws need to be improved. 1999 Montreal convention stipulates the maximum amount of compensation for losses caused by delay: 4 150 SDR, which is the upper limit of compensation. In addition, there is still a wrong view in practice, that is, some passengers think that important business opportunities and other opportunities to obtain economic benefits have been missed due to flight delays, and require airlines to compensate for the losses. In this regard, China's "Contract Law" clearly stipulates that "if one party fails to perform its contractual obligations or fails to perform its contractual obligations as agreed, causing losses to the other party, the amount of compensation for the losses shall be equivalent to the losses caused by the breach of contract, including the benefits that can be obtained after the performance of the contract, but shall not exceed the losses foreseen or should be foreseen by the breaching party when concluding the contract." China's "Contract Law" takes "predictability" as the standard to limit the arbitrary expansion of the scope of compensation. "Predictability" should be based on general social common sense, and airlines naturally cannot predict what business opportunities many passengers have delayed. Therefore, the losses caused by aircraft delays and business opportunities are generally not compensated. 2. The airline will not be responsible for the delay caused by non-airline reasons. These reasons include weather, emergencies, air traffic control, security check and so on. These reasons are beyond the control of airlines. Therefore, the transportation rules stipulate that if there is a delay due to the above reasons, the airline should assist the passengers in arranging meals and accommodation, and the expenses can be borne by the passengers themselves. The Civil Aviation Law stipulates that an airline shall not be liable if it can prove that it or its agent has taken all necessary measures to avoid losses. However, exempting airlines from the liability for breach of contract certainly cannot exempt airlines from their legal obligations. Even in this case, airlines still have the obligation to inform and remedy. Fourthly, I haven't seen a clear legal definition of delay in foreign countries. As mentioned above, whether it constitutes delay is determined by the judge in combination with various factors in the case. More is the voluntary commitment of air carriers (namely airlines) association and the special commitment of airlines. Under their general transportation conditions, foreign airlines generally only provide accommodation, transportation and communication services after flight delays. When airlines oversold (that is, the number of tickets sold by airlines exceeds the actual number of seats on the flight), passengers often refuse to take the plane with confirmed seats and delay. In this regard, the United States and the European Union have stipulated the responsibilities of airlines in their relevant laws. For example, according to the federal regulations of the United States, each carrier should post a "flight oversold notice" at the check-in counter at its airport, and print the "notice" on the ticket or on a separate paper attached to the ticket. The carrier is required to ask passengers who are not in a hurry to voluntarily give up their seats in exchange for compensation. All rejected passengers have the right to compensation, but there are exceptions: for example, passengers do not follow the check-in rules. The carrier is required to issue a written statement to the rejected passengers, explaining the relevant terms, conditions and restrictions of the denied compensation clause, and explaining the carrier's priority boarding rules and standards. If the rejected passenger can take an alternative flight or other means of transportation with an estimated arrival time one hour later than the original flight under the airline's rescheduling, the airline may not have to pay compensation; If the estimated arrival time of alternative transportation arrangements is one to two hours later than the original flight, the airline must compensate the passengers who are refused to board the plane for the amount equivalent to the one-way ticket fare, with a maximum of 200 US dollars; If the estimated arrival time of alternative means of transportation is later than two hours (or international flights are later than four hours), or the airline cannot arrange alternative means of transportation, the compensation will be doubled to 200% of the fare, with a maximum of 400 dollars. Passengers who arrange their own means of transportation can refund their tickets in accordance with the provisions of involuntary refund. In a regulation on overselling adopted by the European Union in 199 1, it is required that in case of overselling, passengers are entitled to a certain amount of money paid by air carriers (airlines) in addition to compensation for losses caused by subsequent delays. Flights of 3500 km and below 150 Euro, and longer flights are 300 Euro. However, if passengers are provided with alternative means of transportation, and the delay is less than two hours compared with the original planned arrival time, or the delay of flights over 3,500 kilometers is less than four hours, the above amount will be paid by half. On February 26th, 2004, the EU adopted a new regulation, which revised the above regulations (it came into effect on February 7th, 2005). This regulation applies to all flights from or to EU airports, including charter flights. The compensation standard is:1250 euros for short-haul flights within 500 kilometers; /kloc-400 euros for medium and long-distance flights over 0/500km or all other voyages within the EU1500km to 3,500km; 600 euros for 3500 kilometers and above. This compensation amount is not only applicable to the case that the flight is oversold and refused, but also applicable to the case of flight cancellation and long delay. It can be seen that the EU has gradually strengthened the protection of passengers' rights.