There was a time in this industry when airlines worked together to move passengers who were affected by aircraft mechanical delays/cancellations and weather issues to their final destinations. Although those safeguards are still in place, the reality of the situation is that airlines are flying at higher utilization ratios than ever before, and sometimes passengers can be stranded en-route for periods of time at their own expense, because the other airlines are booked to capacity. It is important to understand that airlines, by law, are not responsible to compensate passengers for circumstances outside of their control and, unfortunately, mechanical failures fall under that broad category. Being delayed is much better than flying across the North Atlantic in a broken airplane, and that is the basis for the legality issue involved.

Groups and individual passengers wishing to safeguard their financial interests would be wise to consider additional travel protection, especially if they are unable to “self-insure” for unexpected costs.