British Airways Kept Losing Consumer Complaints—So They Found A New Arbitrator

British Airways is dropping the independent complaints service through which passengers won £5 million in a year. Its replacement has a record of much lower passenger success rates. They appear to be shopping for a more accommodating referee, putting their thumb on the scales by choosing who hears complaints against them. On August 24, 2016, I asked this exact question: Will the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution get to keep the British Airways contract if they rule against BA too frequently? Ten years later, British Airways isn’t renewing that contract. They’re moving to AviationADR, the other major U.K. provider. And Head for Points reports that losing its biggest airline customer means CEDR is leaving aviation altogether. British Airways confirmed the switch, describing it as a contract renewal decision and saying: British Airways has selected AviationADR as the independent alternative dispute resolution body to resolve disputes between customers and the airline. British Airways Wasn’t Winning Enough Cases The Civil Aviation Authority’s figures for April 2025 through March 2026 show: British Airways settled 4,414 complaints before a decision. CEDR ruled for passengers in 1,619 cases and for British Airways in 2,234. Settlements and decisions together produced £5,001,728 in passenger awards. That’s a 73% passenger success rate including settlements. Passengers had already gone through the airline’s complaint process, then had to escalate to an outside body before getting an offer which means that BA was improperly rejecting complaints. Most passengers just give up at that point. EasyJet Already Made This Switch easyJet made the move from CEDR to AviationADR after CEDR upheld passenger complaints 79% of the time over its final six quarters with with the airline, and just 29% in the following six quarters with AviationADR. AviationADR’s explanation was that airlines had improved their handling of claims, including using major law firms to filter cases before escalation. Valid claims were being paid earlier, leaving weaker ones for adjudication. And that just happened to coincide with the switch. Ok sure. Airlines Get Advance Access To Decisions Against Them A February 2026 review commissioned by the Civil Aviation Authority described AviationADR giving airlines decisions in passengers’ favor one week before the passengers received them, ostensibly to ‘prepare payment’. During that time, airlines could raise legal challenges, although AviationADR said its legal review panel hadn’t needed to convene for years. The reviewer warned this advance access “may create an impression of bias in favour of the aviation body” and recommended ending it, along with airline challenges to individual binding decisions. CEDR generally uses legally qualified adjudicators. AviationADR doesn’t require legal qualifications and provides more extensive initial training. The commercial pressure to retain the contract paid for by one side is huge, and the fact that BA made this switch underscores what the new adjudicator has to do to keep its revenue stream. Relatedly, Ryanair left AviationADR in 2018 after adverse decisions over staff strikes, then rejoined in 2021 after rules changes. AviationADR says its decisions are independent and based on the evidence and law. Its service is free to the consumer, and passengers who reject a decision can still go to court. Head for Points reports that CEDR will stop accepting new aviation cases on December 31. The Civil Aviation Authority says it’s working with AviationADR on the capacity needed to handle the additional caseload. Topics on this page