Air Carriage Research Articles

Air Blue (Pvt) Ltd v. Judge Consumer Court (West) Islamabad & Another

The High Court of Islamabad, Pakistan, has ruled that courts would follow the international conventions on air carriage as prescribed in the Carriage by Air Act, 2012 while deciding the quantum of damages against air carriers for the liability arising from international air carriage. The court affirmed it while deciding that aggrieved parties are free to choose between a special consumer court or a civil court when bringing claims against an air carrier under the Carriage by Air Act, 2012. Pakistan, aviation law, consumer protection, jurisdiction, special court

Transport system optimization in remote, hard-to-reach and sparsely populated regions, taking into account the requirements of environmental protection and national interests of the Russian Federation

Subject. The article deals with improving the structure of transportation, considering local climatic conditions. Objectives. The focus is on investigation of the optimal structure of integrated transport system of remote, hard-to-reach and underpopulated regions of the Russian Federation by the criterion of minimum total greenhouse gas emissions, given the limitations of minimum transport standards of transportation quality. Methods. We apply methods of statistical, systems analysis, and economic and mathematical modeling. Results. The paper shows that in sparsely populated regions of Russia, the organization of local air traffic gives lower total carbon dioxide emissions, as contrasted with the organization of road transportation, and specifically under significant increase in the mobility of the population. The findings are valid both in terms of reducing the total greenhouse gas emissions, and in terms of reducing other emissions of harmful substances and anthropogenic impact accompanying the construction and operation of extensive ground transport infrastructure. Conclusions. Due to the preference of air transport over ground transport, the reduction of air carriage unit cost, rather than specific emissions of harmful substances, becomes a priority for environmental protection in underpopulated regions. This conclusion is reinforced due to particular vulnerability of unique ecosystems of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, where transport connectivity is the most immediate concern.

Validity of choice of court agreements, abusive terms in air carriage contracts, assignments and compensation, is there room for anyone else? (Comments on CJEU Judgment Delayfix, c-519/19)

In Delayfix case, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has interpreted the formal and substantive validity of a “choice of court agreement” included in an air carriage of passenger’s contract. But, for the first time, the CJEU has openly declared the unfair nature of these choice of court agreements, not only for the passengers, but also for third parties assigned by them. In opposition with former case law on the effects of a choice of court agreement for assignees. In carriage of passengers’ contracts, third parties are usually agencies devoted to the defense of air passenger rights and collection of credits who claim for the compensation rights in accordance with the rights conferred by Regulation 261/2004. From the EU Private International Law approach, the preliminary ruling is of interest, being the Brussels I bis regulation the instrument for clarifying whether this choice of court agreement should be deemed as enforceable or not, regarding the requirements of Article 25 Brussels I bis due to these contracts are not considered as consumer contracts. To the analysis of the merits and substantive law, contrarily than under EU Private International law rules these contracts are considered as Business to consumer (B2C) contracts, and Directive 93/13/CEE and other EU Consumer rules must be applied so as to determine the unfair nature of these clauses in these contracts.

Jurisdiction and termination of the international air carriage in the context of countering COVID-19

The article examines the issues of private law consequences of countering the global viral pandemic COVID-19 in the sphere of jurisdiction and termination of the international air transportation agreement. It is established that the jurisdictional mechanism of consideration of claims from contracts of international air transportation of passengers and baggage requires coordination of the procedure of the claim procedure and court pro-ceedings carried out carried out under the provisions on the protection of consumer rights. In international law and national regulation, the tendency of differentiation of approaches to various types of claims of passengers in case of violation of the obligations of carriers under contracts for interna-tional air carriage is highlighted. Attention is drawn to the difference in the legal regulation of international and domestic air transportation, the use of conflict-of-law mechanisms and norms of international law having priority over national legislation. The study compares the provisions of procedural and private international law, examines the provisions of judicial practice and analyzes international legal norms. It is concluded that in relation to emer-gency conditions like the COVID-19 virus pandemic, the current law needs to be improved. Attention is drawn to the need to strengthen the leading role of law in the context of the increasing technical and informational development of society and the globalization of information links and communications.

On the international legal regulation of cooperation between air transport companies

The subject of this research is the problematic aspects of international legal regulation of cooperation between airways. The author reviews the fundamental international treaties in the sphere of international air transportation (international air law). Special attention is given to examination of different types of bilateral agreements on air transport or air communication. Analysis is conducted on the advantages and disadvantages of the structure of bilateral regulation; different classification of the alliances in Russian and foreign scientific literature. The conclusion is made that although initially, the strategic alliances were created to improve the welfare of air transport companies by reducing costs, currently there is market, concentration with overwhelming share of the three largest alliances. Stiff competition forces to join one or another alliance in order to share in the international air carriage, which clearly indicates the tendency to globalization of air transport. There is no doubt that the countries constantly use the methods of bilateral regulation for obtaining vast benefits.  Currently, further development of bilateral and multilateral (namely regional) cooperation in the sphere of international air carriage aimed at liberalization of international air transport is of major importance. This is the most efficient and fastest means of communication between the countries. The conclusion is made on the insufficient and fragmentary nature of international legal regulation of airways cooperation. The author advances the idea of going beyond private law regulation and creating a universal international legal mechanism that would help to overcome the problem of discrimination against third countries.

International Air Carriage Liability

Air carriage liability for damage represents an essential issue of national and international transport, therefore it is regulated by national law (this article emphasizing Czech law), EU law and international law. Czech regulation consists of provisions of the Civil Code and the Aviation Act, mainly concerning operator’s liability. Several key Regulations, representing EU law, cover many aspects, for example compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights. The Montreal Convention introduced two tiers of liability and the fifth jurisdiction.

Liability of Airport Operator for Damage in International Carriage of Cargo – Representation Issue

Unlike the contract on international carriage of passengers which is of two-way character by the nature of things, the agreement on international air carriage of cargo defines unidirectional carriage. Consequently, when establishing the applicable international instrument for damage sustained in international air carriage of cargo it is necessary to find out which international instrument was ratified by the state of a cargo consigner and which one by the state of cargo consignee. Legal issues resulting from a loss of cargo in international air transport include active and passive legitimation, establishment of applicable instrument of liability (multilateral instrument – convention or implementation of conflict-of-law norms of international civil law or implementation of the national legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as consequential issue of limited or non-limited liability for damage. Legal issues to be addressed are as follows: 1. Who is an actively legitimized subject / passively legitimized subject? 2. Was the damage sustained during international air transport and which instrument is applicable for the particular damage? 3. Does the airport operator represent air carrier in terms of provisions of the Warsaw system or Montreal convention?

A Commentary on the Articles Appearing on Pages 583-618 Relating to the Exclusivity of the Liability Rules of The Montreal Convention of 1999 Applicable to the Carriage of Passengers and Cargo

Issue 6, 2018 of Air & Space Law included two very fine articles addressing Court decisions of the (1) European Court of Justice (CJEU) [see pages 609-618] and (2) an ‘Intermediate People’s Court’ in Beijing, PRC, [see pages 583-607] involving ‘international air carriage’ within the scope of the 1999 Montreal Convention [MC99] and addressing the exclusivity of the liability and damage rules of MC99 to the exclusion of otherwise applicable local or domestic laws, rules and regulations. MC99 was conceived, drafted and adopted to supplant and replace the hodgepodge of liability rules, applicable to ‘international air transportation’, which existed from 1929 to 1999 in various related international treaties, amending /supplementing protocols and inter-carrier agreements, which had evolved over the life of the 1929 Warsaw Convention addressing and resolving, albeit in a temporary and insufficient manner, certain of the liability rules applicable to the international air transportation of passengers, baggage and cargo.1 When MC99 entered into force on 4 November 2003, the following existing Conventions, Protocols and inter-carrier agreements dealing with air carrier liability arising from the international air transportation of passengers, baggage and cargo were superseded by MC99, where applicable to the transportation:

Проблемы правового статуса грузополучателя по договору воздушной перевозки груза

Проблемы правового статуса грузополучателя по договору воздушной перевозки груза

Распределение бремени ответственности за компенсацию морального вреда, причиненного при воздушной перевозке, между перевозчиком и страховщиком

Распределение бремени ответственности за компенсацию морального вреда, причиненного при воздушной перевозке, между перевозчиком и страховщиком

Saving National Airlines?

Air transport is considered a unique industry, one which easily connects different locations around the world yet also carries with it a lot of concern over safety, security, protection of national economies etc... In principle, this is why air transport has long been, and in fact still is, heavily regulated. At a certain point in time air carriage as a business was in principle carried out by governments or under governments' heavy influence. Although air transportation has been considerably liberalised over the last three decades, there are still certain relics of the past. This includes air carriers who are either government owned or controlled, which means that the government indirectly participates in the operation of air transport in a regular open market. This article describes where national airlines come from, why they tend to fail when operating in open market conditions, and what kind of measures the governments concerned have implemented to try and save them when they fail. The paper then reflects on the extent to which it makes sense to save national airlines, at what cost, and how doing so affects the open air transport market. The situation and developments over the last decade at Czech Airlines, the Czech flag carrier is described as a case study.

Reguły rotterdamskie a unimodalne konwencje przewozowe

The aim of the article is to present the problem of potential conflicts between a new Convention of Contracts for the International Carrying of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea (?the Rotterdam Rules?) and the binding unimodal transport conventions. The Rotterdam Rules are called ?a maritime plus convention? because they break with unimodal tradition and include ?carriage by other modes of transport in addition to sea carriage?. The idea in the new Convention is that it shall apply door-to-door, regardless of the mode of transportation, as long as an international sea leg is involved. This broad scope of application of Rotterdam Rules carries a risk of conflicts with unimodal transport conventions which regulate carriage by air, road carriage, carriage by rail and carriage by inland water. The new convention includes some conflict rules, but in the author?s opinion they are not sufficient. The main problem is that the Rotterdam Rules are based on the notion that in general unimodal conventions ? except those which concern air carriage ? cannot be applied to any part of multimodal transport autonomously. It means that, for example, according to the designers of the Rotterdam Rules, the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road does not apply when a carrier undertakes to carry goods by road in a vehicle and some other means of carriage. However, this concept is not unanimously accepted in Europe and an opposite view has at least as much support. The author is of the opinion that those potential conflicts between the Rotterdam Rules and unimodal conventions may discourage some countries from ratifying the new Convention.

Ethiopian Law of International Carriage by Air: An Overview

Ethiopia’s aviation history goes back to the late 1920s. And, carriage of goods and passengers by air dates at least as far back as the 1940s – the decade which witnessed the establishment of Ethiopian Air Lines Corporation (now Ethiopian Airlines).  Despite Ethiopia’s relative success in commercial aviation, domestic literature on commercial air law has been scanty. Court decisions involving air carriage are rare, and one can seldom find a course on air law in the curricula of Ethiopian law schools. This article is an attempt to briefly address the gap in literature and encourage further academic discourse on Ethiopian law of air carriage with particular attention to the law and practice regarding international carriage by air. Key words: Air law, international carriage by air, the 1929 Warsaw Convention, liability of the carrier, documents of carriage, limitation of liability of the carrier

The use of pseudo-inverse methods in reconstructing loads on a missile structure

A missile during air carriage is subjected to high vibratory forces. These forces consequently impose high levels of stress on the attachment points to the aircraft. A repetitive application of stress causes fatigue. However, since the vibratory forces cannot be measured directly at the interface, an inverse method utilising missile accelerometer data has been used to determine the forces. This paper presents two frequency domain techniques of reconstructing loads. Both techniques utilise the Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse method, although the second procedure incorporating a normal modes analysis is perhaps better suited for embedding within a health and usage monitoring system (HUMS). Both techniques enable discrete dynamic loads, which are applied to a finite element model in the time domain, to be successfully reconstructed. Consequently, by identifying forces on a missile structure successfully, the presented techniques enable a better structural integrity assessment to be undertaken.

Irish High Court confirms exclusivity of Montreal Convention with respect to international air carriage

Irish High Court confirms exclusivity of Montreal Convention with respect to international air carriage

Montreal v. Brussels: The Conflict of Laws on the Issue of Delay in International Air Carriage

In recent years, the European Union (EU) has promulgated several ‘consumer protection’ regulations that address a variety of airline passenger issues, including flight delay, cancellation, and denied boarding. The new rules require airlines to grant financial compensation to passengers in the event of denied boarding or flight delay or cancellation, assist them in revising their travel plans by giving them the choice between a rescheduling of the ticket or a refund, and pay for their board and lodging. However, both the Warsaw and the Montreal Conventions for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air directly address the issue of air carrier compensation to passengers for damages suffered as a consequence of ‘delay’, and explicitly provide that the remedies specified therein are exclusive. As all Member States of the EU have ratified those Conventions, it would seem that the promulgation of conflicting EU Regulations raises serious legal questions regarding the relation with the international conventions. The overall conclusion the authors draw from the examination of the EU Regulations and the case law they produced is that EU law conflicts with the international conventions and the exclusivity of their application. The position of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in interpreting the EU Regulations does not facilitate a uniform application of different rules. In case after case, the Court has stated that the jurisprudence surrounding the Warsaw and the Montreal Conventions, broadly speaking, is irrelevant when interpreting the Regulations. It is incomprehensible that these Regulations, and their interpretation by the ECJ, would be so fundamentally inconsistent with the explicit provisions of the Conventions. If the Court had taken a more consensual approach, the EU rules might have complemented, rather than conflicted with, the Conventions.

Some Observations on Civil Air Carrier Liability in International Air Carriage - "Accident", "Damage" and Jurisdiction

Some Observations on Civil Air Carrier Liability in International Air Carriage - "Accident", "Damage" and Jurisdiction

Liability in Air Carriage. Carriage of Cargo Under The Warsaw and Montreal Conventions

This article discusses the liability of the carrier of goods by air under the Montreal Convention 1999. It deals with some of the more eye–catching changes, like the basis of liability and the (im)possibility of breaking the limits. Also, a number of subjects are covered where, in the author’s view, the Montreal Convention should have introduced new rules (the interpretation of the term ‘damage’) or should have clarified existing case law (right to sue and exclusivity).

The Montreal Convention 1999 and Nigerian Law: Uncertainty, Uninterrupted

International air carrier liability under Nigerian law has, for some time past, been shrouded in uncertainty because of the ambivalence with which Nigerian courts applied the Warsaw Convention 1929 as regards its exclusivity or otherwise, vis–à–vis actions and remedies. Consequently, it was hoped that the Montreal Convention 1999, which expressly forbids the application of national laws to international air carriage claims would ameliorate the situation. Unfortunately, the passage of the Civil Aviation Act 2006, which gives the Montreal Convention the force of law in Nigeria, also repealed the Warsaw Convention. This article discusses the liability regime under Nigerian law as it stood prior to the Act and the vacuum which has now been created by the repeal of the Warsaw Convention, which means that where the departing or destination country is not a signatory to the Montreal Convention, Nigeria’s national laws must be applied. The article further analyzes pertinent parts of the language of the Montreal Convention and its travaux préparatoires and argues that the provision which robs the Warsaw Convention of the force of law ought to be repealed immediately.

Consolidada Cubana de Aviación, accident at Havana 3 September 1989, recklessness with knowledge of damage in international air carriage

Consolidada Cubana de Aviación, accident at Havana 3 September 1989, recklessness with knowledge of damage in international air carriage