The international air transport sector has certain unified rules governing airline liabilities since the Warsaw Convention back in 1929. The most recent update at the international level, and promoted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), was the Montreal Convention in 1999, which entered into force in 2003 and has been ratified by more than 130 countries around the world (Colehan, 2014; ICAO, 2021).
The Montreal Convention 1999 (MC99) governs airline liability for passengers, baggage and cargo on international flights in the following cases:
- dead, injury or delay to passengers
- delay, loss or damage to baggage
- delay, loss or damage to cargo
The MC99 also establish the liabilities’ threshold on each case. The amounts are giving in the IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) international reserve unit SDR (Special Drawing Rights) and converted into Eur and USD
Montreal Convention 1999 Thresholds | |
Death or injury of passenger | 100,000 SDR (119,0000 Eur / 144,000 USD) |
Delay of passenger | 4,150 SDR (4,938 Eur / 5,976 USD) |
Baggage | 1,000 SDR (1,190 Eur / 1,440 USD) |
Cargo | 17 SDR/Kg. (20 Eur/Kg / 24.5 USD/kg) |
In addition to the MC99’s liabilities for passengers, baggage and cargo different countries and aviation markets have adopted additional regulation. Taking into account the developments on passenger protection by different states, ICAO has defined some guidelines with the following core principle:
“Government authorities should have the flexibility to develop consumer protection regimes which strike an appropriate balance between protection of consumers and industry competitiveness and which take into account States’ different social, political, and economic characteristics, without prejudice to the safety and security of aviation (ICAO, 2016) ”
The EU is one of the aviation market who has adopted regulation on passenger protection and is introduced on the following sections.
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Related Topics
References
- Colehan, T. (2014). Montreal Convention 1999: A global standard. https://www.icao.int/Meetings/LegalSeminar/Documents/TC_Montreal%20Convention%201999.pdf#search=montreal%20convention%201999
- EC. (2001). Convention for the unification of certain rules for international carriage by air—Montreal Convention 1999. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A22001A0718%2801%29
- ICAO. (2021). CONVENTION FOR THE UNIFICATION OF CERTAIN RULES – List of countries who have ratified the Montreal Convention 1999 (p. 10). https://www.icao.int/secretariat/legal/List%20of%20Parties/Mtl99_EN.pdf
- ICAO. (2016). Consumer Protection—Core Principles on Consumer Protection. Assembly—39th session: Economic Regulation of International Air Transport—Policy (Passenger Rights).https://www.icao.int/sustainability/pages/eap_ep_consumerinterests.aspx
- IMF. (2021a). Exchange Rate Archives by Month. https://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/data/param_rms_mth.aspx
- IMF. (2021b). Special Drawing Right (SDR). IMF. https://www.imf.org/en/About/Factsheets/Sheets/2016/08/01/14/51/Special-Drawing-Right-SDR