From Sunday, passengers of Chinese airlines will be
able to get compensation as high as 45,000 yuan (US$5,549) in case
they suffer losses due to the delay of scheduled flights to
overseas destinations as an international convention on air
transportation takes effect.
The Montreal Convention, which was endorsed on May
28 by the 16th session of the National
People's Congress,
China's top legislature, to better protect the rights of
passengers, will become effective on July 31.
The maximum compensation is 100 times that of
before, when passengers usually only got hundreds of yuan under the
rules of the General Civil Aviation Administration of China
(CAAC).
The CAAC's regulations on international passenger
and cargo transportation will be revised accordingly, said industry
insiders.
In line with the convention, passengers can get a
maximum of 11,000 yuan (US$1,356) in compensation if their luggage
is lost. Before, losses were compensated based on the weight of the
luggage involved.
In addition, airlines are obliged to pay a maximum
1.1 million yuan (US$135,759) in compensation if a passenger dies
or is injured during a flight, whether the carrier is responsible
or not.
The Montreal Convention was adopted by
International Civil Aviation Organization member states in 1999 to
largely replace the Warsaw Convention, originally signed in
1929.
(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2005)