About 35,000 people have been hit by delays when flying with Norwegian - and now Swedish passengers have demanded millions of kronor in damages from the airline.
Low-budget airline Norwegian has been hit by problem after problem since beginning long-haul flights a year ago, making headlines for delays and numerous issues with its fleet, consisting of new Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
About 1,200 people have brought complaints about Norwegian to court, newspaper Svenska Dagbladetreported.
“It’s a total nightmare,” one passenger said.
Just last week a Norwegian flight from Los Angeles to London was more than two days late. Another flight from Stockholm to Los Angeles that was more than a day late made passengers so upset that employees at Arlanda Airport called police to ensure their own safety.
EU law stipulates that passengers affected by delays of more than three hours have the right to compensation of up to 600 euro, or 5,500 kronor ($800).
If all of the passengers affected by Norwegian’s delays demanded compensation and won their cases, the airline could end up paying 192 million kronor ($27 million) in damages.
Norwegian has claimed that since the problems have generally been out of the airline’s control, it is not obliged to compensate passengers.
Norwegian’s information officer emailed the paper to say that Norwegian always compensates passengers when it considers itself at fault for the delays.
“We absolutely do not want to blame Boeing and we have faith in Boeing. But we do think that one should be able to expect significantly better stabillity on brand new planes,” she wrote.
Source: The Local
http://www.thelocal.se/20140813/swedish-passengers-sue-norwegian-airline