INTERCARRIER AGREEMENT ON PASSENGER LIABILITY

WHEREAS: The Warsaw Convention system is of great benefit to international air transportation; and 

NOTING THAT: The Convention’s limits of liability, which have not been amended since 1955, are now grossly inadequate in most countries and that international airlines have previously acted together to increase them to the benefit of passengers; 

The undersigned carriers agree ;

1. To take action to waive the limitation of liability on recoverable compensatory damages in Article 22 paragraph 1 of the Warsaw Convention* as to claims for death, wounding or other bodily injury of a passenger within the meaning of Article 17 of the Convention, so that recoverable compensatory damages may be determined and awarded by reference to the law of the domicile of the passenger.

2. To reserve all available defences pursuant to the provisions of the Convention; nevertheless, any carrier may waive any defence, including the waiver of any defence up to a specified monetary amount of recoverable compensatory damages, as circumstances may warrant.

3. To reserve their rights of recourse against any other person, including rights of contribution or indemnity, with respect to any sums paid by the carrier.

4. To encourage other airlines involved in the international carriage of passengers to apply the terms of this Agreement to such carriage.

5. To implement the provisions of this Agreement no later than 1 November 1996 or upon receipt of requisite government approvals, whichever is later.

6. That nothing in this Agreement shall affect the rights of the passenger or the claimant otherwise available under the Convention.

7. That this Agreement may be signed in any number of counterparts, all of which shall constitute one Agreement. Any carrier may become a party to this Agreement by signing a counterpart hereof and depositing it with the Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

8. That any carrier party hereto may withdraw from this Agreement by giving twelve (12) months’ written notice of withdrawal to the Director General of IATA and to the other carriers parties to the Agreement.

Signed this_____ day of ____________ 199___________

INTERCARRIER AGREEMENT ON PASSENGER LIABILITY 

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Intercarrier Agreement is an “umbrella accord”; the precise legal rights and responsibilities of the signatory carriers with respect to passengers will be spelled out in the applicable Conditions of Carriage and tariff filings. 

The carriers signatory to the Agreement undertake to waive such limitations of liability as are set out in the Warsaw Convention (1929), The Hague Protocol (1955), the Montreal Agreement of 1966, and/or limits they may have previously agreed to implement or were required by Governments to implement. 

Such waiver by a carrier may be made conditional on the law of the domicile of the passenger governing the calculation of the recoverable  compensatory damages under the Intercarrier Agreement. But this is an option. Should a carrier wish to waive the limits of liability but not insist on the law of the domicile of the passenger governing the calculation of the recoverable compensatory damages, or not be so required by a governmental authority, it may rely on the law of the court to which the case is submitted. 

The Warsaw Convention system defences will remain available, in whole or in part, to the carriers signatory to the Agreement, unless a carrier decides to waive them or is so required by a governmental authority.