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Civil Aviation Act 2023

International and domestic carriage of passengers and goods by air - Domestic carriage by air

277: Limitation of liability

You could also call this:

"Airlines are responsible for damage from delays, but their payment is limited to a certain amount."

Illustration for Civil Aviation Act 2023

If you are on a plane and your flight is delayed, the airline is responsible for the damage this causes you. The airline's responsibility is limited to the lesser of two amounts: the amount of damage you can prove happened because of the delay, or an amount that is 10 times what you paid for your ticket. You can think of the amount you paid for your ticket as the cost of your carriage. The airline can choose to take on more responsibility by making a special contract with you.

If the airline does make a special contract with you, they can increase the amount they are responsible for. This means they can choose to pay more than the limited amount if they want to. The airline makes this choice when they make the special contract.

The rules about how much damage is too remote, or far away, from the delay are not changed by this law. You can find more information about this by looking at other laws. For example, you can compare this to section 91ZC of a previous law.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS49967.

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Topics:
Transport and travel > Air travel
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276: Avoidance of liability, or

"Carriers are not responsible if they did everything to prevent damage"

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"Airline rules: contracts can't override your rights"

Part 8International and domestic carriage of passengers and goods by air
Domestic carriage by air

277Limitation of liability

  1. The liability of the carrier in respect of damage caused by delay is limited to the lesser of—

  2. the amount of damage proved to have been sustained as a result of the delay; and
    1. an amount representing 10 times the sum paid for the carriage.

      1. Despite subsection (1), the carrier may, by special contract, increase the amount of the carrier’s liability under that subsection.

      2. This subpart does not affect any rule of law relating to remoteness of damage.

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