Passengers who incurred flight delays may have to wait sometime for compensation.

The High Court has suspended the right of UK passengers to solicit airlines to pay for compensation on long flight delays. A ruling last November by the European Court of Justice gave passengers a legal entitlement to compensation for any flight delays over a certain length of time. However, the High Court, after being requested to withdraw the ruling, has referred the issue back to the ECJ for a second hearing.

The decision means that all UK courts will suspend compensation hearings until after the ECJ delivers a second ruling on the issue. According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), it will defend the current standing during the next ECJ hearings. A spokesman said that the CAA’s view on the law had not changed, despite the court’s suspension of the body’s enforcement powers. He added that the CAA wants to retain the ruling handed down in 2009.

Up until last November’s ruling, European rules allowed passengers to seek compensation if flights had been cancelled. However, November’s ruling allowed passengers experiencing exceptionally long delays the right to also seek cash compensation. Previous to this, if passengers were delayed the airlines simply had to offer meals, telephone calls, hotel accommodation and refreshments. However, the UK airline industry, spearheaded by British Airways, Easyjet and TUI, opposed the move taking it to High Court to appeal to the ECJ to think again on the matter.

According to Sarah McIntyre from Easyjet, it is important for passengers to recognise that this latest ruling does not mean passengers will be denied free calls, hotel accommodation and meals during the ECJ’s reassessment of the compensation rules. She added that airlines would continue to fully comply with the air industry’s rules. Since November, various airlines have handled the compensation claims differently, with some paying up and some attempting to delay the payments while the High Court made a ruling.