Summer is the high season for travel and the busiest time at the airports. But not all travel plans are smooth, especially for long-distance flights.

Travel interruptions are no joke. In 2017, more than 109,000 passengers departing or returning to Canada from Europe faced flight mishaps. These interruptions were valued at more than $65 million in compensation to passengers—and yet, most passengers didn’t even know they were eligible for said airline compensation. On a global scale, almost nine million flyers are legally entitled to flight disruption compensation per year. Yet, only 66 per cent will file for the compensation—meaning $8 billion in reimbursement is untouched each year.

Enter AirHelp: an international company that recently landed in Canada. AirHelp has offices around the world, is available in 30 countries, offers support in 16 languages, and has more than 500 employees globally. A leading tech business, it helps Canadians determine if they are eligible to seek reimbursement on interrupted flights in or out of Europe (as per Europe’s EC261 law). To date, AirHelp’s app has already helped more than 7 million users process their airline compensation claims.

 

So how AirHelp assist its users? Their app scans boarding passes at the touch of a button and tells travelers if their flight disruption is eligible for compensation. Passengers can even connect AirHelp to their inbox to scan for applicable flight tickets from three years ago, and get updated automatically on future eligibility. AirHelp, eliminates the stress of applying for flight compensation in a foreign country by fighting the tiresome legal battle on behalf of the passenger.

“Throughout many years of international travel, we noticed the frustrating trend of flight delays and interruptions that were routinely taking place without good cause,” says Henrik Zillmer, Co-Founder and CEO of AirHelp. “When we dove deeper, we realized the scale of the problem, the level of difficulty involved in claiming compensation and the amount of money being left unclaimed by travelers. What was lacking was an understanding of flyers’ rights and a means for travelers to easily claim the money they are entitled to. This issue is only exacerbated for Canadian travelers attempting to claim in a foreign market with language and legal barriers.”

 

“Most countries—including Canada—either have created or are working towards having laws that hold airlines accountable for passenger delays,” says Christian Nielsen, Chief Legal Officer at AirHelp. “But despite these laws, what we found is that airlines often reject compensation claims without providing a reason or simply fail to respond to complaints.”

“Europe’s EC261 law is trailblazing the way in the international arena for passenger rights and assistance. With AirHelp, we want to extend the benefits and reach of that law to travelers of all nationalities flying in and out of Europe.”

In Canada, the reward can be substantial: compensation is allocated per passenger resulting in individual passengers being eligible for as much as CAD$900.

With a variety of delays and disruptions at home and abroad, summer 2018 is already off to a chaotic start. New AirHelp analysis shows that the first six months of this year have seen severe flight disruptions, with financial compensation doubling and tripling in some countries. For example, Canada has experienced a 28% increase in compensation owed in the first six months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. In the last six months, over four million passengers globally have been affected by the summer chaos and of that a total of 30,000 Canadians are already eligible for a little over $30 million due to a flight delay, cancellation or overbooking.

If you’d like to check your eligibility for flight delay compensation, make sure to visit AirHelp’s website.  

Happy summer and happy travels!