Passengers' refund rights as hundreds of US flights grounded

11 January 2023 , 11:07

1364     0

Flights have been grounded across the country, according to reports (file photo) (Image: Getty Images)

Passengers who have been caught up in widespread airport chaos in the US are very unlikely to receive any compensation.

Hundreds of flights in the US have been delayed amid a systems failure at the Federal Aviation Administration.

The issue could have a knock on effect on aviation across the globe, with flights in France already impacted by the issue, according to passengers on social media.

Passengers have complained of being stuck on planes on the tarmac for hours in airports in several different parts of the country.

Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration first reported a system failure on January 10, and it still hasn't been resolved, it has been reported.

Plane door flies open as passengers' bags sucked out in terrifying flight video

Have you been caught up in the chaos? Email webtravel@reachplc.com

The issue is likely to have impacts felt across global aviation (file photo) (Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The potential scale of the disruption is huge.

A total of 21,464 flights are scheduled to depart airports in the US today, with nearly 2.9 million seats available on these departures.

If you are flying from the UK to the US, then you should be covered by UK law.

If your flight arrives your final destination more than three hours late, and the delay has been caused by the airline, you are entitled to compensation.

Because the system's failure is not the fault of airlines however, it is very unlikely that they will pay out any compensation.

Many people have taken to Twitter to complain of being stuck in the chaos.

Bettina Inclán wrote: "The pilot of my @united flight just informed us there is a nation wide outage of FAA computer systems. It’s been down since midnight and forcing a stop to all air travel."

Alexis Uremovich tweeted: "Nationwide FAA computer outage has grounded flights this morning! Here’s hoping we get to Disney!"

Alexander W. Clegg added: "FAA system down nationwide – all flights are grounded indefinitely. Unfortunately that includes mine."

Topless thug brawls with another passenger on packed plane in row over seats

At least 500 delays have been reported within, into, or out of the US today, according to Flight Aware.

In a statement to NBC, the FAA said: "The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System.

"We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now. Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.

"We will provide frequent updates as we make progress."

Sal Paradise said they'd found themselves stuck at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

"Airline just informed us that the FAA computers are down in the US and no flights are flying to America," they tweeted.

Milo Boyd