The Montreal Convention, an international treaty to which over 1401 countries are parties, sets the liability limits for lost and damaged baggage, cargo, delay of passengers and cargo, and compensation for passenger death or injuries. Those limits of liability are based on SDRs, an artificial basket of currency created by the International Monetary Fund.2 Under Article 24 of the Montreal Convention, the limits of liability set forth in Articles 21 (compensation for death or injury of passengers), 22 (limits of liability for lost or delayed baggage and cargo) and 23 (conversion of monetary units into Special Drawing Rights) “shall be reviewed by the Depository at five-year intervals.” These liability limits were last revised in December 2019 and, therefore, were reviewed this year by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which notified the Member States to the Convention that the liability limits will be adjusted by 17.9%. Accordingly, based on the current conversion rate of 1 SDR into the U.S. dollar, $1.33 as of October 30, 2024, the recommended revised Convention limits of liability are as follows:
- Cargo – 26 SDRs per kilo ($35)
- Baggage – 1,519 SDRs ($2,019)
- Passenger Delay – 6,303 SDRs ($8,579)
- Death or Personal Injury – 151,880 SDRs ($201,896)
As provided in paragraph 2 of Article 24 of the Convention, the revised limits become effective six months after notification to the Member States (which occurred on June 28, 2024) unless, within three months after notification (September 30, 2024), the majority of the Member States register their disapproval with ICAO. As the majority of Member States did not disapprove, the effective date for the revised limits of liability is December 28, 2024.
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1 A list of the countries that are parties to the Montreal Convention, i.e. Member States, can be located at https://www.icao.int/secretariat/legal/List%20of%20Parties/Mtl99_EN.pdf.
2 The value of the SDR fluctuates daily is available from the IMF at https://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/ert/GUI/Pages/CountryDataBase.aspx.