Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Civil Aviation (Denied Boarding, Compensation and Assistance) Regulations 2005 and shall come into force on 23rd April 2005.

Interpretation

2. In these Regulations—

• a reference to an Article is a reference to that Article in Council Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 of 11th February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights ; and

• “ operating air carrier ” means an air transport undertaking with a valid operating licence that performs or intends to perform a flight under a contract with a passenger or on behalf of another person, legal or natural, having a contract with the passenger.

Offences

3.—(1) An operating air carrier is guilty of an offence if, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, it fails to comply with an obligation imposed on it by Article 4, 5, 6, 10, 11 or 14 ...

(2) A person guilty of an offence under this regulation shall be liable on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

Due diligence defence

4. —(1) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation, in proceedings against any operating air carrier for an offence under regulation 3 of these Regulations, it shall be a defence for that operating air carrier to show that it took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence.

(2) An operating air carrier shall not be entitled to rely on the defence provided by paragraph (1) by reason of its reliance on information supplied by another, unless it shows that it was reasonable in all the circumstances for it to have relied on the information, having regard in particular—

(a) to the steps which it took, and those that might reasonably have been taken, for the purpose of verifying the information; and

(b) to whether it had any reason to disbelieve the information.

Enforcement

5. —(1) The Civil Aviation Authority shall be the designated body for the purposes of Article 16(1).

(2) The Civil Aviation Authority and, subject to paragraph (4), the bodies listed in paragraph (3) shall be designated bodies for the purposes of Article 16(2).

(3) The bodies referred to in paragraph (2) are—

(a) CEDR Services Limited (company registration number 03271988);

(b) Consumer Dispute Resolution Limited (company registration number 09189773).

(4) The designation by paragraph (2) of a body listed in paragraph (3) only applies in so far as any contract entered into by that body with an operating air carrier provides for that body to deal with complaints made in accordance with Article 16(2) in relation to that carrier.

Review

6.—(1) The Secretary of State must from time to time—

(a) carry out a review of these Regulations,

(b) set out the conclusions of the review in a report, and

(c) publish the report.

(2) In carrying out the review the Secretary of State must, so far as is reasonable, have regard to how the rights and entitlements set out in Council Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 are enforced in other member States.

(3) The report must in particular—

(a) set out the objectives intended to be achieved by these Regulations,

(b) assess the extent to which those objectives are achieved, and

(c) assess whether those objectives remain appropriate and if so, the extent to which they could be achieved in another way which involves less regulation.

(4) The first report under this regulation must be published before the end of the period of five years beginning with the day on which this regulation comes into force.

(5) Reports under this regulation are afterwards to be published at intervals not exceeding five years.