Montreal Convention

The Montreal Convention (formally, the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air) is a multilateral treaty adopted on 28 May 1999 by member states of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and entered into force on 4 November 2003. It updated and replaced parts of the earlier Warsaw Convention and Hague Protocol, which had governed international air travel since the early 20th century. The treaty aims to create clearer and more consistent rules for the international transport of passengers, baggage and cargo, especially regarding airline liability in the event of injury or death. As of April 2025, 140 of the 193 ICAO member states had joined the Convention.

A key feature of the Montreal Convention is a two-tier system for passenger compensation. Airlines are automatically responsible for proven damages up to 128,821 special drawing rights (SDR), equivalent to approximately US$175,000, without the need for passengers or their families to prove fault. For claims above that amount, the airline is only exempt from further liability if it can show that the incident was not caused by its own negligence. This system replaced the older, more limited compensation rules and was designed to simplify legal proceedings for victims and their families.