On Civil Liability For Delay In Airline Passenger Transport

Flight delay is a common phenomenon in the world. Sometimes, the air carriers can not prevent the flight delay because of the force majeure; but sometimes, the air carriers themselves caused the accident. The former we called it the reasonable delay, the latter we take it as unreasonable delay. Despite which kind of delay it really is, we should treat it as fact. As long as the air carrier did not transport the passengers on time, they should take responsibility. The reasons for delay are different, so the liability forms are different.On one hand, the laws and regulations are imperfect; on the other hand, the court did not accurately apply the law, so the passengers can not get the fair treatment. The civil liability mode of the air carriers should be changed. The air carriers should take the liabilities for breach of contract, in addition to the collateral obligation. But the passenger can ask for liabilities for damage only when they have experienced the unreasonable flight delay. Not only the strict liability rule, but also the equity principle requires this.In practice, the liabilities for damage can not be all met. The compensation for spiritual damage and punitive damage can not be supported, but the pure economic loss depends on situation. In order to maintain the integrity of the contract law, we can relief the pure economic loss by the third person’s infringement of claim system. What worth to noting is that, when there is the force majeure and the claimants’ fault, the air carriers as the responsible party can take less or even no liability. When the flight delay caused personal injury, the alternative liability between breach the contract and tort law really exists. The passengers can call for the imbursement for damage, besides the other claim.Improve legislation will do favor to the passenger, they can handle the problems much easier. At the same time, strengthen the supervision on the air carriers and put the flight delay insurance into practice can also resolve the difficulties in flight delay remedy system.