Economic Support System in Aviation, in Case of Delay or Cancellation

The importance of speed as the main index and characteristic of aviation compare to other forms of transportation seems even more sensitive issue when it comes to flight delays. Concerns over this matter became a motivation for special measures to be taken by different countries in relation to delay by creating uniform regulations in terms of cargo and passengers through planes. All these efforts lead to codification on the convention for unification of certain rules relating to international carriage by air, commonly known as the Warsaw convention of October 12, 1929. According to article 19 of the above convention, approved by I.R Iran, “the carrier is liable for damage occasioned by delay in the carriage by air of passengers, luggage and goods”. This liability can be limited and in cases disclaimer might be accepted as well while according to the convention, intensification of liability of aviation operators is not unmanageable. The remarkable point about the convention is its failure to adopt appropriate stance in case of flight cancellation or invalidation. Silence of the convention in this regard, while the cancellation of flight can tarnish the achievement of targets even more than the delay per se, forced countries to provide a solution in their internal rules using general rules of liability and ratification of restitution due to flight cancellation and also recognition of liability of aviation operators. Although the legal position of such guidelines toward international conventions which proved more protection for passengers in not clear, they impose heavy financial burden on airline companies.