2017.9.15
Yi-Shan Cheng
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications promulgated Article 3 as amended of the Regulations Governing the Mediation of Transportation Disputes between Civil Aviation Passengers and Aircraft Carriers (hereinafter, the “Rules”) with the addition of Article 3-1 via the Qi-Fa-1065019862 Directive of September 15, 2017 of the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
To address the issue that there was no specific regulation to provide for the extent of a flight delay before a refund could be requested in the past, Article 3 of the Rules is amended where Paragraph 1 stipulates that if a flight cannot commence as scheduled to the extent that a domestic flight is delayed for over 15 minutes or an international flight is delayed for over 30 minutes or the flight routes and takeoff and landing locations are changed, the reasons and handling methods shall be thoroughly and promptly explained to the passengers; Paragraph 2 specifically provides that in case of a delay for over 5 hours where the passengers do not accept the airline’s arrangements, the passengers may seek a refund from the original ticket sellers and no handling fees may be charged.
In addition, if an aircraft diverted to another airport for any reason cannot fly to the original destination airport in a short period of time, Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Rules is added to allow the operator to coordinate with relevant units at the airport to arrange for the passengers to disembark the plane or enter the country at the diverted airport when the conditions of such airport allow in order to help the passengers reach their destinations as soon as possible or to address special circumstances or needs such as health.