Thomas Cook pays up over nine-hour chaos at airport after Tunisia holiday

Leading travel outfit Thomas Cook has been ordered to pay Maria Edwards, 47, and her family £827 compensation for a nine-hour delay to one of its charter flights due to accidental damage caused by another passenger. 

This ended a 19-month court battle which her lawyers say could pave the way for a wave of similar claims for money back over flight delays of more than three hours. 

Until now airlines have classed all delays caused by passengers as “extraordinary circumstances” not covered by EU regulations.

Mrs Edwards, of Swindon, launched her court case against Thomas Cook in August 2014, a year after the “frustrating” delay in returning from a two-week family holiday to Port El Kantaoui in Tunisia. 

The teacher and partner Tom, 32, her daughter Alexandra, 17, and her son Samuel, 15, were forced to spend nine hours in a stiflingly hot airport waiting lounge at Enfidha airport before boarding their flight to Cardiff after a handle of an emergency door on the plane was damaged by a passenger’s bag on its last flight the previous evening. 

An hour delay became nine as the replacement part had to flown in from France and then a maintenance crew trying to instal the new handle accidentally deployed the aircraft’s emergency slide. 

Mrs Edwards said: “Hopefully this court decision will make it easier for other families to claim compensation after suffering delays. 

“I waited a year to make our claim after the holiday as I did not even realise I could make one.” 

Adeline Noordehaven, UK manager of compensation specialists EU claim, said: “This case was interesting for us as it’s the first one where the court has looked at the source of a technical defect on a plane and whether this can be classed as an extraordinary circumstance.

"The court has judged that airlines have to take a level of responsibility for passenger actions.” 

She added that this should open a debate on whether airlines should be liable for delays caused by passengers drunk on alcohol served during flights. 

Thomas Cook Airlines has disputed the significance of the Birmingham County Court judgment, saying higher district courts in the UK have previously ruled delays resulting from the actions of other passengers can be classed as an “extraordinary” circumstance. 

A spokesman said: “We have also successfully defended cases of disruptive passengers. In just three years our long delays have dropped from four per cent to less than one per cent, making us one of the highest-performing airlines. 

“The claim of a landmark ruling lacks credibility as county court judgments cannot create legal precedents.”