Our Liability to You and Making a Claim
23.1 How our liability will be determined
Our liability (and the liability of each carrier involved in your journey) will be determined by:
(a) these Conditions of Carriage;
(b) the conditions of carriage of each carrier operating your flight; and
(c) applicable law.
23.2 Applicable Law
(a) There are specific laws that cover air transportation of passengers and Baggage (including airline liability). These include Regulation 261/2004, Regulation 2027/97, the Warsaw Convention, the Montreal Convention and/or local law in individual countries.
(b) If any of the limits of liability set out in these Conditions of Carriage are inconsistent with the liability set out in these laws, the liability set out in such laws (or any other applicable law) will apply.
23.3 Scope of Our Liability
(a) We will be liable only for Damage or Delay occurring during carriage on flights operated by us or a Codeshare carrier or in relation to which we have a legal liability to you. If we issue a Ticket or if we check Baggage for carriage on another carrier, we do so only as agent of the other carrier. The other carrier may have lower limits of liability in its conditions of carriage.
(b) Where transportation of your Baggage is performed by successive carriers (as defined by the Warsaw Convention or the Montreal Convention, as applicable), you may make a claim against the first or last carrier.
23.4 Our Liability for death and bodily injury of Passengers
(a) We will only be liable for death, wounding or any other bodily injury suffered by a passenger if it was caused by an accident which took place on-board the aircraft, or during embarking or disembarking the aircraft, in accordance with Regulation 2027/97, the Warsaw Convention or the Montreal Convention, as applicable.
(b) Where the Warsaw Convention applies, our liability will be governed by and subject to the limits under the Warsaw Convention.
(c) Where Regulation 2027/97 and/or the Montreal Convention applies, our liability will be governed by and subject to the limits under the Montreal Convention and/or Regulation 2027/97, as summarised in Article 24.5 below.
(d) In the event of death or bodily injury we will only be liable for recoverable compensatory damages for proven losses and costs in accordance with the Warsaw Convention or the Montreal Convention, as applicable.
(e) We reserve all rights of recourse and subrogation against all third parties.
23.5 Montreal Convention – Liability for death and bodily injury of passengers
(a) There are no financial limits to our liability for bodily injury or death.
(b) For claims up to and including 1131,100 SDRs, we will not contest our liability. However, if we can show that the Damage was caused or contributed to by the negligence or other wrongful act or omission of the injured or deceased passenger or the person claiming compensation, we may be excused wholly or partly from our liability by applicable laws.
(c) For claims that are more than 1131,100 SDRs, we will not be liable for any damages over 1131,100 SDRs if we can prove:
(i) we were not negligent or otherwise at fault; or
(ii) the Damage was caused by the negligence or other fault of a third party.
(d) If we are required to do so in accordance with Regulation 2027/97 we will, without delay and in any event not later than 15 Days after the identity of the personal entitled to compensation has been established, make any advance payment as may be required to meet immediate economic needs on a basis proportionate to the hardship suffered. In the event of death of a Passenger, an advance payment will be the equivalent of at least 16,000 SDRs per Passenger.
(e) If we make an advance payment, it does not mean we have accepted liability for death or bodily injury.
(f) We may offset any advance payment we make against any later sum we are due to pay based on our liability.
(g) An advance payment might need to be repaid to us if:
(i) we are excused from liability because the Damage was caused or contributed to by the negligence or other wrongful act or omission of the injured or deceased passenger or the person claiming compensation; or
(ii) we discover the person who received the advanced payment was not entitled to it.
23.6 Other important information
(a) These Conditions of Carriage and any other Applicable Conditions, together with any exclusions and limits of liability, applies to our agents, employees and representatives in the same way as they apply to us and so the total amount you can recover from them will not exceed the total amount you could recover from us
(b) Nothing in these Conditions of Carriage:
(i) gives up any exclusion or limitation of our liability under Regulation 2027/97, the Warsaw Convention or the Montreal Convention or applicable laws unless we have stated otherwise; or
(ii) prevents us from excluding or limiting our liability under Regulation 2027/97, the Warsaw Convention or the Montreal Convention or any applicable laws or gives up any defence available to us, against any public social security body or any person liable to pay, or who has paid, compensation for the death, wounding or other bodily injury of a Passenger.
(c) A summary of the main provisions of our liability is set out in your Ticket, or may be provided by us or our Authorised Agents to you by other means but cannot be used as a basis for a claim for compensation, or to interpret the provisions of Article 23 of these Conditions of Carriage.
23.7 Time limit for bringing a legal action (excluding Baggage)
(a) You will have no right to damages if any legal action for Damage or Delay is not brought within two (2) years of:
(i) the date of arrival at your destination;
(ii) the date on which the aircraft should have arrived; or
(iii) the date on which the carriage stopped.
(b) The method of calculating the time-limit for bringing a claim shall be determined by the law of the court where the case is heard.