Air Carrier Liability under the Montreal Convention 1999: Passengers, Baggage and Cargo

Introduction

The Maldives acceded to the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (the Montreal Convention 1999) on 31 October 2005 and the convention entered into force for the Maldives on 30 December 2005. As between its parties, the convention replaces the Warsaw Convention 1929 and the protocols which amended it. Since almost every visitor to the Maldives arrives on an international flight, the convention governs the great majority of claims against airlines which arise in the Maldives.

The Maldives acceded to the convention before the current Constitution came into force in 2008. There is no separate Maldivian statute giving effect to the convention. In practice the convention is applied through the conditions of carriage of the airlines operating to the Maldives, which incorporate its rules and limits, and through Section 17 of the Civil Aviation Act (Law No: 2/2001), which requires the standards set by the regulator for the safety of passengers and cargo to be no lower than those of the international conventions to which the Maldives is a party.

Scope of the convention

Under Article 1, the convention applies to international carriage of persons, baggage or cargo performed by aircraft for reward. Carriage is international where, according to the contract between the parties, the place of departure and the place of destination are in two state parties, or are in one state party with an agreed stopping place in another state. Carriage between two points in the Maldives is therefore outside the convention unless it forms part of a single international carriage.

This distinction matters in the Maldives. Article 1(3) provides that carriage performed by several successive carriers is deemed to be one undivided carriage if the parties regarded it as a single operation. A passenger who buys a single ticket from Europe to a domestic airport in the Maldives through Velana International Airport or to a floating platform of a tourist resort may be covered by the convention for the whole journey, including the domestic sector if it had been regarded by the parties as a single operation. A passenger who buys the domestic flight or seaplane transfer separately is not. The domestic sector is then governed only by the carrier's conditions of carriage and the general law of the Maldives.

Death and bodily injury

Article 17 provides that the carrier is liable for damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury of a passenger if the accident which caused it took place on board the aircraft or in the course of embarking or disembarking. The passenger must prove an accident, an unexpected or unusual event external to the passenger, but need not prove fault.

Liability operates in two tiers under Article 21. For damage not exceeding 151,880 Special Drawing Rights (SDR), approximately USD 202,500 as of September 2026, for each passenger, the carrier cannot exclude or limit its liability. Above that amount, the carrier is liable without limit unless it proves that the damage was not due to the negligence or other wrongful act of the carrier or its servants and agents, or was solely due to the act of a third party. Under Article 20, the carrier is exonerated to the extent that the damage was caused or contributed to by the negligence of the claimant.

The limits are reviewed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) every five years under Article 24 by reference to inflation. The current figures took effect on 28 December 2024.

Delay, baggage and cargo

Article 19 provides that the carrier is liable for damage caused by delay in the carriage of passengers, baggage or cargo, unless it proves that it and its servants and agents took all measures that could reasonably be required to avoid the damage, or that it was impossible to take such measures. Liability for delay to a passenger is limited under Article 22(1) to 6,303 SDR, approximately USD 8,605 as of September 2026.

Under Article 17(2), the carrier is liable for the destruction, loss of or damage to checked baggage on the sole condition that the event took place on board the aircraft or while the baggage was in the charge of the carrier. For unchecked baggage the carrier is liable only if the damage resulted from its fault. Liability for baggage is limited under Article 22(2) to 1,519 SDR, approximately USD 2,073 as of September 2026, for each passenger, unless the passenger made a special declaration of interest at check-in and paid any supplementary sum. Liability for cargo is limited under Article 22(3) to 26 SDR per kilogramme, approximately USD 36 as of September 2026.

The limits for delay and baggage do not apply if the damage resulted from an act or omission of the carrier done with intent to cause damage, or recklessly and with knowledge that damage would probably result. The cargo limit cannot be broken. Under Article 26, any provision in the contract of carriage which relieves the carrier of liability or fixes a lower limit than the convention is null and void. Under Article 31, a complaint about damage to checked baggage must be made in writing within seven days of receipt, and a complaint about delay within 21 days, failing which no action lies against the carrier except in the case of fraud.

Jurisdiction, time limit and exclusivity

Article 33 allows the claimant to bring an action in one of the following courts:

• the court of the domicile of the carrier;
• the court of the carrier's principal place of business;
• the court of the carrier's place of business through which the contract was made;
• the court at the place of destination; and
• for death or injury claims only, the court of the state in which the passenger had his or her principal and permanent residence at the time of the accident, provided that the carrier operates services to or from that state and conducts its business there from premises it leases or owns.

The last of these, commonly called the fifth jurisdiction, means that a foreign visitor injured on a flight to the Maldives will usually be able to sue the airline at home. Conversely, a Maldivian carrier operating international services is exposed to claims in the courts of the passenger's country of residence, provided the carrier serves that country.

Under Article 35, the right to damages is extinguished if an action is not brought within two years from the date of arrival at the destination, or from the date on which the aircraft ought to have arrived. Article 29 provides that any action for damages, however founded, can only be brought subject to the conditions and limits set out in the convention, and that punitive damages are not recoverable.

Insurance

Article 50 requires each state party to require its carriers to maintain adequate insurance covering their liability under the convention, and permits a state to require evidence of such insurance from foreign carriers operating into its territory. The Maldives Air Safety Circular OPS-14 (Third Party Liability Insurance), issued on 20 November 1995 and in force since 1 March 1996, requires Maldivian registered aircraft and aircraft operated by Maldivian air operator's certificate holders in public transport to carry passenger liability cover of not less than USD 200,000 multiplied by the number of passenger seats. That figure is broadly equivalent to the first tier of liability under the convention and takes no account of the unlimited second tier.

Comment

The convention gives passengers on international flights to the Maldives a clear and largely fault free basis of recovery, but its rules reach the Maldivian courts only indirectly, through the airlines' conditions of carriage. Enacting the convention as national law would remove any doubt about its application in Maldivian proceedings.

The more pressing gap is domestic carriage. A large number of visitors complete their journey on domestic flights. If the domestic flights are not part of the international journey, but a separately booked domestic flight or seaplane transfer, there is no statutory liability regime at all. Many states, including the member states of the European Union, apply the rules of the convention to domestic carriage by their own carriers. A domestic carriage law on the same lines would give domestic passengers the same protection as international passengers and would give operators and their insurers certainty as to their exposure.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Ahmed Murad, Senior Partner

Email: [email protected]