The number of travelers affected by flight delays and cancellations during Carnival 2023 surpassed the mark recorded before the pandemic during the 2020 revelry, revealed a survey by AirHelp, a company specializing in air passenger rights, released on Monday,6.
The study considered the incidents with regular flights at Brazilian airports between February 17 and 22, 2023, and compared them with those between February 21 and 26, 2020, recorded in the company’s global database.
In all, there were 379,000 passengers affected by cancellations or delays longer than 15 minutes on Carnival 2023 flights – in 2020, 328,400 travelers were affected.
The increase, therefore, was 15.5%.
This still means that one out of every four revelers who traveled by plane this Carnival encountered this type of inconvenience at airports.
During the 2020 festivities, one in six experienced the same inconvenience.
Cancellations alone more than quadrupled during Carnival 2023: 42,800 passengers missed their flights; one in every 36 travelers with a ticket in hand missed a flight.
In 2020, this number had 10,400 passengers with canceled flights; one in every 211 travelers never left the ground.
When looking exclusively at delays longer than two hours, it is also possible to see a worsening in 2023.
This year there were 18,023 passengers affected by this type of extended wait (one in every 87 travelers).
In 2020, there were 11,539, or one in every 192.
It is important to remember that delays of more than two hours, if not caused by weather or force majeure, can result in airline compensation claims.
Brazilian airlines carried 1.5 million passengers during Carnival 2023, which is still lower than Carnival 2019 when 2.2 million passed through the country’s terminals.
CAN I ASK FOR COMPENSATION?
To claim compensation, passengers must be aware of certain conditions.
The first is to verify that the delay or cancellation caused the user suffering, stress, or injury.
Events such as missing an important medical appointment, cancellation of a contract, a resignation, absence from an event of great emotional significance are all situations that can give rise to a claim for compensation before the airline.
If the passenger has experienced so-called “moral damages” and can prove them, passengers have a good chance of obtaining financial compensation of up to R$10,000 (US$1,937) per individual.
Passengers have a better chance of obtaining financial compensation if the airline is directly responsible for the flight interruption due to technical problems or a lack of crew members, for example.
Service interruption due to extreme weather conditions can be used as a justification and is accepted by the courts as being outside the airline’s control.
However, passengers are still entitled to service and information in this situation.
Anyone flying in Brazil is protected by the Consumer Defense Code and the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) legislation, the most relevant legal instruments for the passenger.
These laws clearly define the airlines’ responsibilities to their passengers whenever there are flight problems.
Brazilian legislation covers domestic flights within Brazil, international flights departing from or arriving at Brazilian airports, and flights connecting through a Brazilian airport.
Brazilian law protects passengers, provided their flights meet the following four criteria:
- The flight landed or took off at a Brazilian airport;
- The flight was canceled with late notice, the flight was more than 4 hours late, or the flight was overbooked;
- Passengers were not adequately cared for by the airline;
- The problem occurred within the last 5 years (2 years for international flights)
With information from UOL