Court orders Saudia to pay over SAR61,000 to passenger for 21-hour flight delay

A Saudi court has ordered national carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) to pay a passenger and his family SAR61,617 ($16,431) because their flight from Jeddah to New York was delayed by 21 hours, local media reported.

The court of appeals in Riyadh upheld the ruling issued by the administrative court ordering Saudia to compensate the passenger.

The verdict said the compensation was for the “psychological and financial harm” the passenger had sustained, in addition to legal expenses, local daily Saudi Gazette reported.

The airline was also being penalised for changing the seat numbers of the passengers on the return flight.

Saudia operates a daily flight from Jeddah to New York JFK.

According to Saudi’s General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA), in case a flight is delayed for a period that exceeds six hours, the passenger “shall have the right to request the air carrier to consider the flight as a cancelled”.