TAROM, Romania’s ailing national carrier, placed last in a ranking grading how different airlines answer compensation claims.
AirAdvisor analyzed 68,283 compensation claims submitted between January and June 2026 to determine which airlines are the easiest and hardest to obtain compensation from.
TAROM ranked last, with 23.3 points out of 100: only 3.3% of eligible claims were settled favorably, while 46.7%, nearly one in two, ended up in court, by far the highest rate among the airlines analyzed.
The most striking finding of the analysis was the difference in the rate at which claims escalated into legal proceedings. For TAROM, AirAdvisor recorded 122 eligible claims. Only four had already been settled favorably, while 57 had been taken to court. The rate of 46.7% was the highest among the airlines analyzed. It was followed by AeroItalia, with 28.2%, Ryanair, with 17.8%, Air Europa, with 13.8%, and Vueling, with 9.3%.
Passengers who received compensation from TAROM got it after an average of 110 days. Among airlines with sufficient data, the shortest average payment time was seven days.
At the other end of the ranking, TAP Air Portugal took first place, with nearly nine out of ten eligible claims settled favorably and less than 1% ending up in court. The airline had a Honesty Score of 93 out of 100.
Wizz Air, the airline most frequently used by passengers in Romania, ranked third, with a favorable settlement rate of 72.7% and 1.2% of claims ending up in court.
“Passengers should not have to become legal experts to receive the compensation they are entitled to. These figures show how much the experience after a flight disruption can vary depending on the airline. With some operators, the overwhelming majority of eligible claims are settled without court intervention. With others, legal proceedings are much more frequent. For passengers, this can mean additional months of waiting and uncertainty,” said Anton Radchenko, founder and CEO of AirAdvisor.
The differences were also visible among the largest airlines in the study. KLM had the largest sample, with 1,314 eligible claims, of which more than half, 51.5%, had already been settled favorably, while only three had ended up in court. Air France recorded a settlement rate of 59.0% and a litigation rate of 2.9%.
Lufthansa had 970 eligible claims, but only 22 were settled favorably, and 88 were taken to court. Ryanair, with a comparable sample of 991 claims, had 21 settled favorably and 176 taken to court.
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