Aviation liability
The carrier's and operator's liability toward passengers, cargo and third parties on the ground, framed by a two-tier international regime.
Montreal Convention of 1999, Article 21: up to 151,880 special drawing rights per passenger since December 28, 2024, the carrier is strictly liable for death or bodily injury and can raise no defense except the victim's own fault. Above that, liability remains unlimited unless the carrier proves it was not negligent. The ceiling, revised every five years for inflation, stood at 100,000 SDR in 1999, 113,100 in 2009 and 128,821 in 2019: up by more than half in twenty-five years, without a single contract being renegotiated. Aviation liability in fact bundles three exposures of different kinds, which policies carry under a single combined limit. Cargo is capped per kilogram, baggage per passenger, and only a special declaration of interest in delivery raises the limit. Third parties on the ground remain the hole in the system. The Rome Convention of 1952 is thinly ratified, each national law applies, and limits are sized on the worst urban scenario rather than on a statutory ceiling. The whole structure answers one mismatch, the price of a ticket against the cost of a mass casualty loss.
The strict liability ceiling toward passengers, revised every five years for inflation, stood at 100,000 special drawing rights in 1999. It rose to 113,100 in 2009, 128,821 on December 28, 2019 and 151,880 on December 28, 2024. That is an increase of more than half in twenty-five years, and it bites on every bodily injury file without any contract being renegotiated.
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