Passengers' rights

Information to Passengers concerning the EU Regulation 261/2004/EC and applicable rules of the Law on Obligations and Proprietary Rights in Aviation (Official Gazette 132/1998 and 63/08).

Dear passengers,

In order to receive your rights as per enclosed EU Regulation EC 261/2004, you shall contact us directly via our website. Our claim handling service is free of charge, whilst Claims farm charge additional/certain fee which is deducted from financial compensation.

If your flight has been cancelled or is subject to a long delay, or you have been denied boarding on a flight for which you hold a valid reservation, you are entitled to certain rights in accordance with the applicable regulations as follows:

Scope

The Regulations apply:

to passengers on flights departing from an airport in the EU, or the state signatory of the *ECAA Agreement and flights departing from an airport in a third country to an airport in the EU, or in the state signatory of the ECAA Agreement; unless passengers received benefits or compensation and were given assistance in that third country - only if you have a confirmed reservation on the flight concerned
only if you (except in case of cancellation) present yourself in time for check-in or, if no time is indicated, at least 45 minutes before the published departure time
only if you travel on a ticket bought at fare available to the public
where Croatia Airlines is the operating carrier of the flight.

Delay

A delay occurs when a flight is delayed beyond its scheduled departure time

by 4 hours for flights of more than 3.500 km
by 3 hours for flights between 1.500 km and 3.500 km as well as intra-Community -flights of more than 1.500 km
by 2 hours for flights of up to 1.500 km.

When your flights are expected to have a long delay, passengers are entitled to receive care while waiting.
This includes:

meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time
if necessary hotel accommodation
and the possibility of making two short telephone calls, fax or e-mail messages.

In case of more than 5 hours you are entitled to a refund of your ticket for the parts not used.

Denied boarding

If in case of overbooking you are denied boarding, voluntarily or involuntarily, on a flight for which you hold a reservation you are entitled to care and refund as laid out in the previous section on delay.

In addition you are entitled to re-routing, under comparable conditions, to your final destination at the earliest opportunity.
Subject to availability of seats, you may instead choose re-routing to your final destination at a later date of your convenience, in which case you will have to bear yourself the cost of food, accommodation and transfer.
If you have denied boarding against your will you are in addition entitled to compensation.

The form of compensation payment is at our discretion and resources available at certain airports, and shall be paid for in cash or, by electronic bank transfer, or if it is acceptable to you, in vouchers (Miscellaneous Charges Order).

The amount of Denied Boarding Compensation (DBC) depends on the distance of the schedule flight or the alternative flight proposed to you.

Compensations amount to:

a) € 250 - for flights up to 1.500 km
b) € 400 - for flights between 1.500 km and 3.500 and intra-Community flights of more than 1.500 km,
c) € 600 - for flights not falling under a) or b).

If you are offered an alternative flight, the scheduled arrival time of which does not exceed
a) 2 hours in respect of flights up to 1.500 km
b) 3 hours in respect of flights between 1.500 km and 3.500 km as well as intra- Community flights of more than 1.500 km
c) 4 hours in respect of all other flights

The above mentioned compensation amounts shall be reduced by 50%, i.e. € 125, - , € 200, - and € 300, - .

Cancellation

If your flight, for which you hold a valid reservation, has been cancelled, you are also entitled to re-routing, care, refund and compensation as laid out here above. If the flight cancellation is due to extraordinary circumstances, which could not have been avoided, even if all reasonable measures had been taken, you are not entitled to financial compensation, but you retain all other above mentioned rights.

Equally, there is no right to compensation when the passenger has been informed of the cancellation:

at least 14 days before the schedule time of departure
between 14 and 7 days before the schedule time of departure and the alternative flight departs no mores than 2 hours before the originally schedule time of departure and reaches final destination less than 4 hours after the scheduled time of arrival
less than 7 days before schedule time of departure and the alternative flight departs no more than 1 hour before the originally schedule time of departure and reaches final destination less than 2 hours after the schedule time of arrival.

Extraordinary circumstances include bad weather conditions, political instability, strikes, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings.

How to claim compensation

To make a claim for compensation please contact our Representative at the airport, or Croatia Airlines Customer Relations. The person making the claim must be one of the passengers.

Claims may be submitted by post to: Croatia Airlines, Customer Relations Department, Bani 75b, Buzin, 10010 Zagreb or by filling a form on our website. Claimants must supply their name and contact details, the names of other passengers being claimed for and their contact details, correct bank details, booking reference and details of the cancelled flight.

To apply for a refund of unused parts of your journey or reimbursement of the parts of the journey flown, please contact the office where your ticket was purchased. If you have booked online, check online for contact details. You will need to provide in writing your name and contact details, ticket number, booking reference, flight number, banking details, date and details of the claim you are making and supporting documents (e.g. unused ticket coupons). Please note Croatia Airlines is unable to process your claim for compensations or refunds at all airports.

*ECAA Agreement means Agreement on European Common Aviation Area – a multilateral agreement between the European Community and its Member States, The Republic of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Republic of Bulgaria, The Republic of Croatia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, The Republic of Iceland, The Republic of Montenegro, The Kingdom of Norway, Romania, The Republic of Serbia and The Republic of Kosovo on the establishment of a European Common Aviation Area

Arbitration board

Mandatory information according Article 16 Regulation (EC) 261/2004 and Article 19 Regulation No. 542 The Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015 (for all complaints regarding the regulations (EC) 261/2004 und (EC) 1107/2006)

If your trip is private trip and if you remain dissatisfied with the final decision made from our customer care team, if you have not received a reply within two months or in case of any complaints regarding the enforcement of these regulations, you may contact the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Please follow the link: http://www.ccaa.hr/english/obrazac-za-prigovor_162/

Alternatively you may contact either:

Association of European Ombudsman (AME)- Maison du Barreau, 2 rue de Harlay -75001 Paris, independent public service that intervenes in all requests for extra-judicial settlements of disputes, including flight disputes at the following link: www.mediationconso-ame.com
or
Schlichtungsstelle für den öffentlichen Personenverkehr e.V.’ (SÖP), Germany’s independent arbitration board for public passenger transport that oversees all carriers at the following link:
https://soep-online.de/welcome.html
https://soep-online.de/request-form-flight.html

An online dispute resolution platform operated by the European Commission is now available to help access to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for complaints. Please follow the link: http://ec.europa.eu/odr

An online platform where you can access digital Complaint book requested by portuguese Decree-Law 156/2005 is now available at the link: https://www.livroreclamacoes.pt/INICIO.

National Enforcement Bodies

CROATIA

Croatian Civil Aviation Agency
Ulica grada Vukovara 284
10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Tel.: +385 1 2369 300
Fax.: +385 1 2369 301
E-mail:passenger.right@ccaa.hr

EU and OTHER COUNTRIES

Link: https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/passenger-rights/national-enforcement-bodies-neb_en

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

BHDCA – Directorate of civil aviation
V kozarske brigade 18
78000 Banja Luka
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tel: +387 51 921 222
Fax: +387 51 921 520
E-mail:bgdca@bhdca.gov.ba

REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Civil Aviation Agency
Dame Gruev 1
1000 Skopje
Republic of North Macedonia
E-mail:passengerrights@ccaa.gov.mk