DUBAI: The UK Supreme Court on Friday refused Emirates airline permission to appeal an October ruling refusing it leave to appleal an order to pay compensation of up to €600 (Dh2,704) each to delayed passengers who miss connecting flights, UK media reported on Friday.
An Emirates spokeswoman said, “We are very disappointed by the Supreme Court’s ruling denying us leave to appeal against the earlier judgement of the High Court in relation to the application of Regulation EC261 to flights of non-Community carriers originating outside of the EU.
“As one of the world’s largest airlines, we always comply with all legal requirements and based on the judgement, we’ll advise customers of our approach in due course.”
The case centres around EU rules on compensation for delayed flights. Under the EU regulations, passengers whose flights are delayed more than three hours must be compensated. However, Emirates contended that passengers whose flights were delayed by less than three hours, but sufficient to cause them to miss a connecting flight in Dubai, were not covered under EU rules as the connecting flight did not originate in Europe.
The UK-based news website The Independent reported that the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it will now pursue compensation claims against Emirates.
