SOCIETY

Blighted Chirstmas holidays deserve proper compensation and angry Aeroflot passengers who spent hours at Sheremetyevo airport waiting for their flights are ready to take the aviation giant to court if the company refuses to pay up.

 Hundreds of complaints demanding 100 000 roubles ($3,420) on average have been filed so far, Sergei Litvintsev, Moscow lawyer and disgruntled Aeroflot client told The Moscow News.

 And there are more in the pipeline, as he and fellow pro-bono legal adviser Kristina Kameneva handle the first action.

Mounting  numbers

For now the campaigners number about 1000 and 600 complaints have been filed and delivered by hand to Aeroflot’s headquarters, he said.

They aim to get 4000 roubles for each hour they had to stay at the airport, and want to be reimbursed for all expenses they met during the period in question, as well as a delay penalty of three per cent of flight costs, excluding taxes and additional fees.

Aeroflot representatives called the amounts unrealistic before they received the claims, Vedomosti reported.

“From my experience, courts normally decide on 4000-5000 roubles to compensate for moral damages,” Irina Alimova, lawyer at “Public Control” consumer rights watchdog, told the Moscow News.

Sometimes the amount is about 10 000 roubles if harm can be proved by medical documents, she added.

However, she agreed that this particular case has captured public’s imagination to an unprecedented extent.

“Moral harm compensation can vary considerably, but in our case we are taking into account Russian and international examples,” Litvintsev said. “And in the West it would be easier to get compensated properly, given the evidence we can provide,” he continued.

Concessions

Aeroflot have offered travel vouchers or a modest 25 roubles for each hour of delay to all passengers caught up in December’s transport mayhem.

Last week the company claimed 2,500 free-flights vouchers were given out and six payouts of about 2000 roubles were made, Vedomosti reported.

And 2000 more requests for compensation will be processed, an Aeroflot representative said.

However, the campaigners hope that a report by Transport Minister Igor Levitin which criticises Aeroflot will help their cause.

Double target

And suing for compensation is just one of the campaign’s goals. They also want to improve Aeroflot’s client service in general.

The group is currently collecting suggestions from its members. “Later we would like to organise an expert group – among our members there are aviation and legal professionals,” Litvintsev said.

And since the inability to deal with passengers when the company ran out of antifreeze is the main reason for the collective complaint, the company should be interested in taking these proposals into account, he believes.