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Two decades of international impasse in ratifying the Montreal Protocols has prompted an increasing number of countries to formulate their own airline liability limits. Two Australian bills will raise the liability limit payout to $500,000 for both Australian airlines and international airlines operating to Australia. (John Ruming)
Australia Increases Airline Liability Limits
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Frustrated by a lack of progress overseas, Australia is about to act unilaterally on measures designed to protect airline passengers flying to, from, or within Australia, beyond the current Warsaw Convention limits.
Two bills now before Parliament will increase airline liability limits and impose insurance requirements on all carriers to ensure that accident victims or their heirs receive compensation of up to half a million dollars. Both bills seem certain to pass this year. As a result, Australia will become part of a growing vanguard of impatient nations who have decided to take such matters into their own hands.
International treaties have covered airline liability for passenger injuries or death ever since the Warsaw Convention of 1929. From the beginning, the formula has always been that passengers or their survivors do not need to prove fault, but airline liability is limited. In other words, airlines have agreed to strict liability in exchange for a lid. Claimants cannot exceed the lid unless they prove that an airline acted with wilful misconduct.
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