Recently, Haikou Maritime Court settled a dispute over contract of international carriage of passengers by aircraft through mediation, and the mediation agreement has now been fully performed. This has been the first case of dispute over contract of international carriage of passengers by aircraft handled by Haikou Maritime Court since the court was designated to exercise pilot jurisdiction over air transport disputes in Hainan province. The successful mediation not only balances the rights and interests of the passenger and the airline but also helps to maintain good cooperation between them.

In this case, the dispute arose as a result of luggage damage during air carriage. The Plaintiff, at the end of the flight taken by the Defendant from Liberia to Beijing, reported serious damage to her trunk during the journey and demanded compensation for more than 16,000 yuan from the Defendant. The parties could not come to an agreement on the compensation amount, hence the lawsuit.

After accepting the case, the sole judge correctly applied the provisions of the Montreal Convention and the relevant Chinese laws and regulations on civil aviation and explained to the parties their respective rights and obligations under the carriage contract. Based on that, the judge suggested that the Plaintiff had an appropriate judicial expectation and told her the compensation amount she was likely to receive according to the Convention and the relevant laws and regulations. However, a deadlock occurred where the Plaintiff was demanding a compensation much higher than the assessed amount and the Defendant was reluctant to make payment. The judge promptly adjusted mediation approaches and, by reasoning things out with the Defendant from various aspects including the extent of damage sustained by the Plaintiff, the cooperation between them, and the business image of the Defendant, suggested that the Defendant provided aviation service products of good value to the Plaintiff instead of monetary compensation. After rounds of communication with great patience, the judge finally brought both sides together. With the Defendant, upon the supervision of the judge, fulfilling the obligations under the mediation agreement, the dispute was eventually resolved.  

Being the first maritime court in China to exercise pilot jurisdiction over aviation disputes, Haikou Maritime Court has been practicing the judicial concepts of “ceasing litigation through mediation” and “walking in litigants’ shoes before judging them”, and handling each and every aviation case in a fair and efficient way according to the highest standard. Going forward, Haikou Maritime Court will further improve litigation-source governance and diversified dispute resolution in respect of aviation cases, with a view to providing better judicial support for building the Hainan Free Trade Port into an aviation hub.