The UK Court of Appeal has dismissed two discrimination claims in the cases of Christopher Stott v Thomas Cook Tour Operators Ltd and Tony Hook (by his litigation friend Gillian Hook) v British Airways Plc. These cases were originally supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the decisions have effectively “narrowed” disabled persons rights when flying.
The effect of the decision is that once onboard a plane, disabled passengers have no special rights under UK law and European regulations on air travel. It also means that they cannot seek damages for discrimination.
In its ruling, Court of Appeal considered that there was no support for the proposition that Regulation 1107/2006 creates a private law cause of action for which damages could be sought and upheld the exclusivity of the Montreal Convention in relation to the provision of compensation for disabled people on board an aircraft. Regulation 1107/2006 enshrines the right of disabled people to equality of travel, when travelling by air (including a requirement on member states to establish penalty regimes). The Montreal Convention is the basic international instrument governing international carriage of passengers, baggage and cargo.
Human rights, equality and public interest lawyer at Bindmans LLP Gwendolen Morgan said “This decision threatens to render anti-discrimination legislation ineffective in most in-flight incidents of discrimination by airlines. In short, once a boarding pass has been issued, there would be no remedy of damages for injury to feelings, although one could still seek a declaration that there had been discrimination.”
Bulletin readers may recall that British carrier Easyjet was recently fined €70,000 by a French court when it refused to allow three wheelchair bound passengers to board planes for security reasons. The case was labelled as a landmark ruling.
Click here to see the judgment.
Click here to see an article by Reduced Mobility Rights.