Adria threatened with jet impound over unpaid compensation
Adria Airways has been warned that its aircraft could be seized over unpaid compensation to an Austrian passenger dating back from 2017. The airline cancelled last night’s service between Ljubljana and Vienna after it was revealed that law enforcement officers, an executor, as well as lawyers for the FairPlane compensation claims company planned to greet the aircraft upon arrival in the Austrian capital. On September 23, 2017 Adria cancelled a charter flight that was due to operate from Cephalonia in Greece to Graz. A passenger filed a compensation claim worth 250 euros but despite numerous warnings issued to the airline and a subsequent court case ruling in favour of the passenger, the Slovenian carrier had not obliged.
In a press release, FairPlane, which acted in the interests of the passenger, said, “The deadline for the payment expired on Thursday September 5, 2019 so at 19.00 CEST, an executor, police and a lawyer were present at the gate at Vienna Airport. Usually, in such cases, sales from on board duty free, as well as other property belonging to the airline found immediately on site is seized. If nothing can be held or there is resistance from the crew, the executor can impound the aircraft”. However, the flight from Ljubljana, which was to be operated by a wet-leased British Aerospace 146 aircraft, never arrived. Passengers on flight JP136, that were to depart to Vienna, boarded the aircraft but were then offloaded from the jet only to be told several hours later that the flight had been cancelled. Meanwhile, passengers in Vienna were informed that their flight had been cancelled five minutes prior to the planned departure time.
It is unclear whether the cancellation was in any way related to the events in Vienna last evening. Had Adria’s flight arrived it would not have been possible to execute any of the measures outlined by FairPlane as the service was being performed by German ACMI operator WDL Aviation, which is no way connected to the case. The compensation claims company said it could not carry out similar measures on two of Adria’s Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft based in Vienna, which are currently operating on behalf of Austrian Airlines, as it needed to secure a “lot of paperwork in advance”. Adria has been heavily criticised for failing to pay out compensation to its passengers following numerous cancellations and delays over the past year. The Slovenian carrier has not publicly commented on last night’s events.
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