Hanover (dpa/tmn)
The flight is canceled due to a warning strike or is it heavily delayed? This is annoying. What rights you have as a passenger.
Warning strikes announced at several German airports are disrupting travel plans – what if the flight is delayed or canceled because of them? These are your rights:
In the event of a flight cancellation due to a strike or a delay of more than three hours, the airline must offer travelers alternative transport to their destination – for example by rebooking on another flight. This often happens automatically. Or the airline offers the option of converting the ticket for domestic German flights into a train ticket.
Set deadline for alternative
If the airline does not offer something like this of its own accord, those affected should set a deadline for procuring the alternative. If she does not comply with the request, travelers could find a replacement themselves and then charge the airline for the costs.
If a flight is delayed for more than five hours, travelers can return the ticket and ask for their money back – they do not have to accept vouchers. Handling fees may not be withheld by the airline either.
In the case of package tours, the tour operator is obliged to arrange alternative transport.
The question of compensation
Die EU Air Passenger Rights Regulation provides for compensation payments of 250 to 600 euros per passenger in the event of delays of three hours or more at the destination and short-term flight cancellations under certain conditions. To put it simply, whether passengers can claim these funds in the event of flight problems as a result of a warning strike depends primarily on who is actually on strike.
If airport staff go on strike, the prospects of compensation are rather poor. The situation may be different if employees of an airline or its subcontractors stop working.
In detail, passengers can exercise their rights on the website of the consumer centers read. When checking claims, the free flight trouble-App of the consumer center NRW help. The European Consumer Center offers a browser-based self help-Tool in case of flight problems.
Important to know: The right to replacement transport or reimbursement of the ticket costs exists in any case and regardless of whether passengers are also entitled to compensation.
The advice of the affected airports:
Because of the Verdi strike call, Hamburg Airport has already announced that no passenger planes will take off on Thursday and Friday. Cancellations and delays are also to be expected on arrivals. Passengers should contact their airline.
Cologne/Bonn Airport is already preparing passengers for “massive disruptions to flight operations”. Anyone who has booked a flight to or from Cologne/Bonn for Thursday or Friday should urgently check the status of the flight with their airline or tour operator before arriving at the airport.
Düsseldorf Airport also writes on its website that passengers have to expect longer waiting times and cancellations on the two days. You should find out beforehand whether the flight will take off as planned. There is also a request to the passengers: In order for the security checks to go as quickly as possible, they should please reduce their hand luggage “to a minimum”.
