Lim Wei Jie's Question about Airline's Liabilities to Passengers

What are the airline's liabilities to passengers, and what are the costs and operational impacts when flights are late?

Just concentrating on Delays & Cancellations, an airline's liability is determined by the cause of the AOG (Acft on Ground). 

The Airline is not liable during a force majeure or Act Of God, like the Eyjafjoell Volcano eruption. In those situations, any action on the part of the airline to rebook passengers/ provide free accommodation/ provide meal vouchers is entirely a gesture of goodwill of the airline. The airline can choose to do any or all of the above to selected pax or all of the pax. Logically, airlines should extend some form of aid. However, in reality, airlines are cautious in providing aid wholesale, because airlines would bleed terribly if they do so.

On the other hand, if it is a technical delay, eg. Engine unserviceable, fuel line ruptured, Aircon inoperable, etc. the airline is liable. However, the extent of liability is once again limited by several factors:

• Location of AOG (generally, airlines are legally obliged by stricter service recovery rules if location is in EU states)
• Distance of flight
• Cabin Class of traveling Pax
• Frequent Flyer status
• Length of delay
• Time of delay (overnight?)
• etc

 Next, Airlines would have to rebook Passengers, which will also be based on another matrix. 

Don't forget that not all Pax are travelling point-to-point. A delay who inadvertently mean that a Pax who miss most, if not all of his remaining connections. And if you are wondering if the airline at fault is responsible for rebooking the affected Pax, you would have to look at the airline's Rebooking Matrix. 


People always compare one airline's service recovery to another. Generally, it's not the airlines you fly with, it's the cabin class you fly in.
 

Most of the big airlines publish their DBC policies online. This is an example of the Denied Boarding Compensation (DBC) of Turkish Airlines.