With airport chaos dominating the news recently, award winning aviation practice Bott & Co has recovered £1million from airlines for clients claiming for delayed or cancelled flights. Over the course of just ten months Bott & Co, who have settled over 2500 claims for clients, using EU legislation, has a total on-going claim value of €4.5m and currently represent a further 10,000 claimants.

The process is made possible through a data transmission system designed by leading secure documentation company Zylpha (www.zylpha.com). This links a database of European flight details and claims, based in the Netherlands and operated by EUclaim, with a LexisNexis Visualfiles case management system tailored to Bott & Co’s requirements by Zylpha’s consultants. Zylpha also provided an electronic signature system so that claimants can sign up to Bott & Co online.

Says Susan Luya IT Manager of Bott & Co, “The rapid development of a case management system, together with web service integration with our flight data partners in the Netherlands, meant that Bott & Co has been able to quickly diversify into a new line of business, specifically providing assistance to passengers who are seeking to enforce their rights for compensation as a result of a flight cancellation, delay of more than three hours or denied boarding.
“Innovative development work by our IT department in conjunction with Zylpha, meant that the end product, developed using the well-known LexisNexis Visualfiles case management system, is a highly effective integration that supports our clients’ needs well. Zylpha quickly understood the nature of our business needs and helped us to deliver a processing solution which is extremely user friendly. Their secure services and integration ensure the solution is stable, flexible and most importantly scalable to enable the business to handle the ever increasing volume of claims which are being made.”

Paul Hinchliffe, Managing Partner of Bott & Co added, “To be breaking the £1million barrier in just a year since the idea of recovering flight compensation was conceived, and just 10 months from launching the department, serves to highlight the efficiencies in the system Zylpha developed with us.

“We have shown that we will stand up to the airlines on behalf of consumers. We are helping David take on Goliath and now represent more than 10,000 passengers. We will continue to battle until airlines treat passengers fairly. The regulations are clear and if airlines pay consumers where they should, then it won’t be necessary to involve a law firm.”

Tim Long CEO of Zylpha welcomed Hinchliffe’s comments adding,” It’s been rewarding to play such an active part in creating a system where the law protects individual travellers who have suffered delays. Bott & Co has taken a lead here and to hear that they have recovered £1m in ten months demonstrates that the system is working very well indeed.”

Any passengers who feel they have a case should visit:
www.bottonline.co.uk/aviation