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Baggage

Warsaw Convention — carrier liability for baggage

TreatyWARSAWDerived or secondary source

Warsaw Convention system (international carriage outside the Montreal Convention)

Rule id
baggage.warsaw
Version
1.0.0
In force from
February 13, 1933
Last read against its sources
August 5, 2026
Countries bound
None listed — a treaty whose party states are set by accession

In plain language

What this regime says.

The Warsaw Convention of 1929 still governs international baggage claims on the minority of routes where one endpoint State has not ratified the Montreal Convention. It is worse for passengers in almost every respect: liability is capped at 17 SDR per kilogram of checked baggage rather than 1,519 SDR per passenger, the written-complaint window for damage can be as short as three days, and the carrier has a broader defence.

Who is covered

Passengers on international carriage where at least one of the departure and destination States is outside the Montreal Convention — around fifty States as of 2026, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Belarus, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Libya, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Suriname, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Yemen.

What you get

17 SDR per kilogram of registered baggage, or 332 SDR for objects you carried yourself. More if you made a special declaration of value at check-in and paid the supplementary sum. The ceiling depends on the weight of the bag, not on what was in it.

Where claims go wrong

  • The ceiling is arithmetic on weight. Without the checked weight from your baggage tag or the carrier's record, no figure can be calculated honestly.
  • The complaint period for damage is 7 days under the Hague Protocol but only 3 days under the unamended Convention. Work to the shorter one.
  • Carriers routinely answer Warsaw claims with Montreal figures. Check which convention actually governs before accepting either.
  • Warsaw gives the carrier an "all necessary measures" defence even for checked baggage, where Montreal is strict.
  • The two-year period in Art. 29 extinguishes the right itself; correspondence does not suspend it.
The official claim route

Authority

Every citation,
with its pinpoint.

A claim that cites “EU law” gets filed. A claim that cites Article 7(1)(c) gets answered. These are the exact coordinates this entry rests on.
  1. Warsaw Convention 1929, Art. 1(2)Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air (Warsaw, 12 October 1929), as amended at The Hague 1955URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 1(2)
  2. Warsaw Convention 1929, Art. 18Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air (Warsaw, 12 October 1929), as amended at The Hague 1955URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 18
  3. Warsaw Convention 1929, Art. 19Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air (Warsaw, 12 October 1929), as amended at The Hague 1955URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 19
  4. Warsaw Convention 1929, Art. 22(2)–(3)Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air (Warsaw, 12 October 1929), as amended at The Hague 1955 and by Montreal Additional Protocols Nos. 1 and 2 (1975)URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 22(2)–(3)
  5. Warsaw Convention 1929, Art. 26(2)Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air (Warsaw, 12 October 1929), as amended at The Hague 1955URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 26(2)
  6. Warsaw Convention 1929, Art. 29Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air (Warsaw, 12 October 1929), as amended at The Hague 1955URL verified 2026-08-05Art. 29
  7. Montreal Additional Protocols Nos. 1 and 2 (1975)Additional Protocol No. 1 and Additional Protocol No. 2 to amend the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air (Montreal, 25 September 1975)URL verified 2026-08-05Art. II (substituting Art. 22 of the Convention)

Sources

Where a figure is indexed, converted or published by a regulator rather than fixed in the instrument, the provenance is recorded separately. Anything marked as a modelled estimate is exactly that — a model, not a statutory number.

What it imposes

Clocks, defences and the ladder.

A rule module builds these while it evaluates, because a limitation period depends on which forum is open to you. What follows is the structure this regime produces — deliberately with no dates and no figures, because those belong to your facts rather than to the law.

Does this one reach your facts?

The engine runs every regime that could apply at once and reconciles them, rather than making you guess which page to read.

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