The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is aiming to upgrade the Warsaw Convention with increased compensation and a modernised legal framework by the end of this month.
The 70-year-old treaty, which limits airline liability in an accident to $10,000 per passenger, is being overhauled at a three-week ICAO meeting in Montreal.
In 1955 a voluntary upgrade to $20,000 was agreed and the requirements of the treaty have since been upgraded on a national basis. The liability limit in the USA, for example, is $75,000.
Broad industry consensus on updating the convention was signalled in 1995 when the International Air Transport Association adopted its Intercarrier Agreement on Passenger Liability, which 122 airlines have signed. This waives any statutory limitation of liability and commits to the law of the "domicile of the passenger".
ICAO president Dr Assad Kotaite says: "Our objective should be to provide the world with a modernised legal framework that can respond to the varied needs of states, the travelling public, air carriers and the air transport industry in the third millennium."
Source: Flight International
