You & Yours, BBC Radio 4’s consumer affairs programme took another look at the issue of missed flight connections
Shelley and her party were booked on a Lufthansa flight from London Heathrow to Frankfurt with a Lufthansa connection to Turin. A one minute delay meant that Shelley and her party not only missed the connecting flight from Frankfurt but experienced an unwanted overnight stay – which took a large chunk out of a weeks’ holiday. Their luggage followed much later. To date they have not yet received compensation from the airline for the inconvenience caused.
Lufthansa runs this connecting flight daily. We looked at the data and from the start of the winter season 26 October 2014 through to 14 February 2015. The airline ran this particular flight connection 109 times, but, in 63 out of the 109 flights it was impossible for passengers to catch their connecting flight. So, in 58% of cases the connection could not be made in spite of the airline selling the flight combination to passengers – it knows the chances of them making the connection is slim but still sells seats and takes the money!
Adeline Noorderhaven, Manager, EUclaim UK was also in the studio to talk about EC Regulation 261 and explained why she and her team at EUclaim believe that Lufthansa should pay flight delay compensation to Shelley Hadley and her fellow travellers.
Lufthansa were unavailable to comment.
