Evaluation by passengers about legal regulation and application of airway passengers rights. A study in Istanbul International Airport

Today air line companies which carry both people and cargo with offering comfort and speed parallel to technological improvements, are more preferred by travellers. However, until today the inconveniences of airline (cancelling flights, delays, postponements, luggage losts, deathly accidents etc.) causes lots of tangible and moral losts for passengers. Recently in developed countries like America and West European countries, settlements in coverage of user rights also involve passengers. It can be said that the responsibilities of national and international airline companies and passenger rights are adjusted by signed contracts of countries because for the first time in the world Warsow Convention dated 1929 was used in airline transport. Montreal Convention that was signed by countries including Turkey, is an acceptable one in air line transport. Regulation EC 261/2004 of European Union regulates air passenger rights. Although there is a Turkish Civil Aviation Law number 2920 in Turkey, it is seen that there are still incompleteness about this subject. In order to overcome this, the similiar of the regulation in USA was adopted in Turkish and put in Civil Aviation General Management regulation. "The Regulation Rights of Air Line Passengers"(Shy-Passenger, 2012) that was published in an Authorized Newspaper numbered 28131 dated 3 December 2011 and administered on 1 January 2012 is accepted as a main reference for this study. The rights of the air line passengers with the new regulations and the responsibilities of air line companies are searched in this thesis study. Questionnaries will be used as data collecting way in the research. The questionnaries are planning to be done between 1-15 February 2013. It is expected to be taken out important clues according to evidences analysed statistically. In respect to the evidences taken out from pessengers using air line for holiday purpose, the expected result will be that the passengers are not aware of the given rights and regulations. But from the taken evidences, the trust and request of the passengers for air line companies and the service of air line companies are expected to increase.