Airlines are paying out millions of pounds in compensation to passengers every year after initially saying no, as consumer groups accuse firms of trying to put customers off making claims for severe delays or cancellations.

Almost £11m was paid in the year to October 2025 to passengers whose claims were rejected or left unresolved before being escalated to an independent adjudicator, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Customers told the BBC airlines had “tried to confuse” them to make them drop claims.

Airlines UK said: “UK airlines take their consumer responsibilities seriously and always look to provide clear information and support for their customers in times of disruption.”

The association, which represents the airline industry, added: “The latest Civil Aviation Authority Consumer Survey reflects this commitment, showing passenger satisfaction at their highest levels since 2019.”

Graeme Bowd, who runs a consumer group on Facebook advising people on airline claims, told the BBC: “Weddings get missed, holidays get ruined and business meetings get cancelled and people find it extremely frustrating when they can’t get their compensation claims settled.”

The vast majority of the payouts detailed in the CAA’s data came from British Airways (BA) followed by Wizz Air, Ryanair and EasyJet.

BA paid £6.9m to passengers whose claims the airline had initially rejected or not resolved.

Of 10,679 complaints made against the airline, 81% were upheld in favour of customers after being escalated to an independent complaint body.

BA said the “vast majority” of its flights run without issue.

In the same 12-month period to last October, Wizz Air handed over £1.7m to customers, Ryanair paid £1.68m, and EasyJet shelled out £371,000 in passenger compensation.

The CAA’s data refers to complaints handled by the UK’s two biggest adjudicators – the Consumer Dispute Resolution Limited (CDRL) and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR).

A minority of issues are dealt with by smaller adjudicators.

EasyJet said: “We always pay compensation if it is due and have an easy form customers can claim through on our website.”

Wizz Air declined to comment. Ryanair has been approached for a response.

Bowd said BA used “several stock excuses” such as “adverse weather” or “air traffic control restrictions”.

But he said: “When we check out these excuses we often find they’re not valid at all, but it’s very difficult for ordinary airline passengers to check for themselves.

“I think the general principle is that they don’t expect everybody to claim. For those that do, if they can be fobbed off and frustrated for long enough, most of them will give up.”

Laurie Watson had been flying back to the UK from Athens after a sailing holiday when his return flight was cancelled.

When he tried to claim, BA told him there had been adverse weather conditions and rejected paying him compensation.

But Laurie wasn’t having it. After checking weather reports for the day he was due to fly, he disputed BA’s rejection.

“They send such a bewildering amount of information through that a lay person couldn’t understand it,” he said.

“They’re trying to confuse you, I think, and make you drop the claim.

“It was lots of aviation speak and that made me more determined to follow it through.”

In a judgement seen by the BBC, CEDR found there was “no persuasive evidence” that Laurie’s flight was affected by adverse weather, which would have resulted in such a delay, and the airline was ordered to pay him £700.

Heather Follows had been travelling to her sister’s wedding in Canada with her children but was told her flight with BA had been cancelled due to an engine issue.

She was suspicious from the word go. “It didn’t quite stack up at all,” she said.

“I just felt like it was a tactical approach that they were using regularly to get away with rescheduling flights that weren’t viable.”

Heather felt that BA was unconcerned with “both the emotional hassle of trying to rearrange things and the personal inconvenience and the costs that I’d incurred and just the amount of time that was involved in actually trying to get the paperwork together”.

Adjudicators found that BA had not “sufficiently demonstrated that there were no reasonable measures it could have taken to avoid the cancellation of the flight” and that “the defect was known to the company at least since 2017”.

In the end, BA was ordered to pay Heather £1,560.

In response, BA said: “Where customers submit claims for compensation that meet the legislative requirements, our teams work very hard to process them as quickly as possible.

“In the cases raised, our teams have reached out to our customers to resolve the matters.”

It added: “Most delays and cancellations occur as a result of circumstances beyond our control, such as poor weather or air traffic control restrictions, but when issues occur, we always do our best to make things right.”

EasyJet said: “If a flight is disrupted, we take our responsibilities seriously and always try to ensure customers are well informed and looked after.”

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