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How the CAA can help

If you are not satisfied with the response from your airline or airport

  • If you have already made a written complaint to an airline or airport and you are not satisfied with the outcome or have not received a reply within 8 weeks, the CAA's  Passenger Advice and Complaints Team (PACT) may be able to help.

    PACT is only likely to consider your complaint if the airline or airport you've complained to is not a member of a CAA-approved ADR body.

    Following a review of our complaint handling activities the Passenger Advice and Complaints Team (PACT) will only handle complaints related to:

    • EC Regulation 261/2004 for delayed and cancelled flights, downgrade and denied boarding,
    • EC Regulation 1107/2006 about assistance for disabled and reduced mobility passengers,
      and
    • The Montreal Convention for cases of lost, delayed or damaged baggage. 

    PACT will advise on whether we think you have a valid complaint, and if so will take it up with the business concerned, but we do not have the legal powers to impose a solution on an airline.

    If you are dissatisfied with the opinion the CAA has provided, you can take legal action against the airline or airport, but you cannot appeal against the CAA's decision.

    In addition, there are strict time limits in relation to taking legal action therefore, we will not handle complaints where there is less than a year to take legal action.

  • Please use our online form to send us the details of your complaint against the airline or airport, this will tell you if your complaint is one that we can help you with. You don't have to fill it out all in one go.

    In order for us to progress your complaint, we will need copies of your supporting information:

    • Copies of letters or emails to the airline/airport
    • Copies of the letters the airline/airport sent to you
    • Details of your flight (flight number, date, time, route, airline reference, number of passengers on the booking)
    • For expenses claims, copies of receipts

    Scans of these can be uploaded and attached to the online form.

    We will send you a response by email to let you know we have received your complaint, but we will be unable to progress it until we have received all of the relevant supporting documentation.

     

    If you have a question for us, you can use our online enquiry form and we will advise you if your enquiry is one that we can help with. We will send you a response by email. 

     

  • What to expect

    Please note that the below timeframes are a guideline and due to a large increase in the demand for our services our response times are taking longer than usual for us to process your complaint, we appreciate your patience while we work to reduce this.

    Our initial assessment of your complaint will take about one week if we have received all of the correct supporting documents from you. If your complaint is within our scope, we will then ask the airline or airport to reassess it in light of the relevant legislation and guidelines.

    We should receive a response from the airline or airport within four weeks, although this may vary, and if we challenge the airport or airline for further information it can take another two weeks.

    Once we have received all the information we require it will take us five weeks to contact you with a final assessment of your situation. For a visual representation of this process, see our process diagram.

    If you are dissatisfied with the opinion the CAA has provided you can take legal action against the airline or airport, but you cannot appeal against the CAA’s decision.

    Specific circumstances

  • Disruption caused by technical faults

    Ordinary technical problems that cause flight disruption, such as component failure or general wear and tear, should not be considered an 'extraordinary circumstance' and compensation should be payable in these cases.

    If you have a new claim about a technical disruption, or your airline previously declined your claim due to a technical fault, please contact your airline. If you want, you can use our template letter.

    Please be aware that in the UK the legal limit to issue claims at Court is 6 years from the date of the incident in England and Wales and 5 years in Scotland, but we would suggest you contact your airline as soon as possible. If your claim is nearing the 6 year limit, you may wish to consider legal action.

    Passengers with a disability or reduced mobility

    We can help with complaints about the assistance provided by airports and airlines for flights departing from England, Scotland and Wales and the assistance provided by EU registered airlines from outside the EU to the UK. Contact us to check what we can do for you.

    Complaints from legal representatives

    The CAA are unable to process a complaint submitted by a legal representative on behalf of a complainant until a consent form signed by the complainant has been received.

    Complaints relating to travel agents and tour operators

    If you need to make a claim under the ATOL scheme or have an enquiry about a holiday company please see our ATOL section.

    If they are a member of one, you can also contact the company's trade association (e.g. the Association of British Travel Agents or Association of Independent Tour Operators) - these associations have codes of conduct for their members and will offer arbitration services through which you can pursue complaints.

    If they are not a member of any organisations you could contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

    Health related complaints

    If you have already made a written complaint to an airline or airport on a health matter and you are not satisfied with the outcome, the CAA Aviation Health Unit may be able to help.

    They will need a written letter or email containing all relevant details, and copies of any correspondence, before they can officially take up a complaint, but you are welcome to call them first with any queries.

    Address

    Aviation Health Unit

    Medical Department

    CAA Safety Regulation Group

    Aviation House

    Gatwick Airport South

    West Sussex, RH6 0YR

    Telephone

    01293 573 674

    Email

    AHU@caa.co.uk

    Residents of Northern Ireland about a flight in or out of NI

    Complaints relating to this should be addressed to the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland.

    Address

    The Consumer Council
    Floor 3, Seatem House
    28-32 Alfred Street
    Belfast
    BT2 8EN

    Write to: Freepost The Consumer Council

    Tel: Free Phone 0800 121 6022
    Or (028)902 51600  

    Email: contact@consumercouncil.org.uk  
    Website: www.consumercouncil.org

    Online complaints form  

    Flying from another EU country (not UK)

    Unfortunately we cannot  handle your complaint if it is about a cancellation, delay, downgrading or an instance of denied boarding from another (not UK) EU country. EU in this sense includes all EU Member States plus EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) and Switzerland.

    You will need to contact the relevant National Enforcement Body (NEB) for aviation in that country.

    EU rules do not apply in relation to flights coming from outside the EU on a non-EU airline.

  • If you have been booked on a flight in the last three years that was cancelled or delayed by over 3 hours, we would like to hear how satisfied you were with your airline's response by filling in our survey.

    Further information

  • Our code of practice

    PACT has a code of practice for complaint handling which sets out our role and how we aim to achieve our service standards.

    Handling of sensitive information

    Enquiries involving sensitive data about you or another person are handled with care and in accordance with our data protection obligations. For further information see our Fair Processing Notice for more information.

    If it is necessary for you to send supporting documents to our offices, it is important that you do not send original documentation as we routinely destroy all paperwork (using a secure method) once it has been scanned into our electronic systems.

    Freedom of information

    If you wish to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please visit our FOI web pages.