What aviation ADR does
Alternative Dispute Resolution gives an independent adjudicator the material submitted by you and the airline. The CAA currently identifies two approved schemes: AviationADR, operated by Consumer Dispute Resolution Ltd, and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR). Most participating UK airlines and airports appoint one of them, but membership can change.
The CAA describes the consumer process as free and says a decision will in most cases be provided within three months. It is not an investigation conducted for you: the adjudicator decides on the supplied record.
When you can submit
- You must first make a written complaint to the airline or airport.
- You can normally submit after an unresolved final response.
- You can also submit if eight weeks have passed without a response.
- The CAA says the incident can be within the last six years, or five years if you live in Scotland.
- Submit within 12 months of the final response, or within 12 months of your last written communication where no response arrived.
Verify the current provider's own scope and deadline wording before relying on a final date.
Choose the correct body
- Find the airline or airport in the CAA's current approved-ADR list.
- Follow the link to the appointed provider; do not assume an airline still uses last year's scheme.
- If no approved ADR provider is appointed, check whether CAA PACT can take the complaint.
- If you live in Northern Ireland, check the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland route as well.
PACT is a complaint handler, not an approved ADR body. It can advise and raise an eligible case with the airline, but its view is not binding. An accepted ADR decision is binding on the participating airline or airport.
What ADR can consider
The CAA lists matters including:
- flight delay, cancellation and denied boarding;
- baggage destruction, damage, loss or delay;
- assistance for disabled passengers and passengers with reduced mobility; and
- some cases involving misleading or unfair treatment that caused financial harm.
Personal injury and broad challenges to the general fairness of business practices sit outside this aviation ADR scope.
Submit a complete first file
- A concise statement of the issue and exact remedy requested.
- The original airline complaint and final response, or proof eight weeks passed.
- Booking, proof of travel and the disruption chronology.
- The airline's reason and your evidence-based response.
- Numbered, itemised receipts for any reimbursement request.
- Every material document referred to in your statement.
If the airline defends the case, you can see and comment on that defence, but the CAA says you cannot raise new points at that stage. Put the full case and remedy into the initial submission.
After the decision
You can accept an ADR outcome, after which the airline or airport must follow it. If you do not accept it, the CAA says court action remains possible, subject to its own deadlines, costs and risks. ADR decisions are generally final within the scheme and cannot be appealed to the CAA merely because you disagree with the result.