Paragliding Atlas is a paragliding travel and media company registered in Norway. Organisasjonsnummer 937116934, Olav Troviks Vei M 46, Oslo, Norway. In these terms "we", "us" and "our" mean Paragliding Atlas, and "you" means the person making a booking and every participant named on it.
These terms apply to guided paragliding trips we organise. They do not restrict any right you have under Norwegian or EU consumer law that cannot be restricted by agreement.
If your booking combines two or more travel services, for example flights and accommodation, or accommodation and guided flying that forms a significant part of the trip, it is likely to be a package under Directive (EU) 2015/2302 and the Norwegian Package Travel Act.
Where the trip is a package, you have the full set of rights that legislation gives you. Those include the right to receive all essential information before you book, the right to transfer your booking to another person, the right to cancel without a fee if the price rises by more than eight per cent, the right to cancel without a fee in the event of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances at the destination, and protection of your payments if we become insolvent. We will give you the standard information form for package travel before you book, and it forms part of your contract.
A booking is made when we confirm your place in writing and you have paid the deposit. That confirmation, together with these terms and the trip description on this site, forms the contract between us.
Unless your trip page or confirmation says otherwise:
You may pay by any lawful means. If you send money by electronic bank transfer you are responsible for the transfer fees, so that we receive the full amount shown on your invoice, in the currency shown on your invoice.
Please check your confirmation carefully as soon as you receive it and tell us straight away if anything is wrong, particularly the spelling of names, which must match your passport.
What is included and excluded is listed on the trip page and repeated in your booking confirmation. Unless we state otherwise, the price does not include international flights, visas, travel and rescue insurance, personal flying equipment, or anything of a personal nature.
We may increase the price after booking only for the reasons the Package Travel Act allows, such as changes to fuel costs, taxes or exchange rates, and never in the twenty days before departure. If an increase exceeds eight per cent of the trip price you may accept it, accept a substitute trip if we offer one, or cancel and receive a full refund. If the same costs fall, you are entitled to a corresponding reduction.
Tell us in writing as soon as you know. Your booking ends on the day that notice reaches us.
A termination fee applies, and on a trip like this it is usually most of the price. The permits, guiding, vehicles, park entry and local arrangements behind a Kenya departure are committed and paid for long before anyone arrives, and a place given up close to departure rarely finds another pilot.
The fee is worked out the way the Package Travel Act requires, so you can check it rather than take it on trust. It is the price of your trip, less what we genuinely save by you not coming, less anything we recover by selling your place to someone else. If we cannot save or recover anything, the fee is the full price. If you ask, we will show you the calculation.
Your deposit is not refunded. It is set to reflect the costs we commit at the moment you book.
You may terminate free of charge, with a full refund, where unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances at the destination or its immediate vicinity significantly affect the trip or your carriage to it. War, a serious security situation, a natural disaster or an outbreak of disease at the destination are the usual examples. Weather that stops flying is not one of them, for the reason set out below.
Any refund due under this section is paid within 14 days.
You are buying guiding, logistics, local expertise and access, not a guaranteed number of flights or a particular cross country goal. A tour that ends without meeting a flight objective because of weather, route or airspace conditions, or anything else outside our control, is not a failure to perform, and no refund or price reduction is due for it.
The expedition leader has the final say on when a tour concludes, and will make every effort towards the objectives within our margin of safety.
If you choose to leave an active tour, no refund is due for the days you do not use. That is different from us failing to provide something we promised, where the Package Travel Act gives you a price reduction, and this paragraph does not touch that.
This is why we ask you to hold trip cancellation insurance. A policy covering illness, injury or a change in your circumstances will meet what a termination fee leaves you out of pocket for, and on a trip of this cost that is the difference between a bad month and a lost year.
You may transfer your booking to another person who meets the pilot requirements in section 7, provided you tell us with reasonable notice and pay any costs the transfer causes.
There is no fourteen day cooling off period. Under Article 16(l) of the Consumer Rights Directive, the right of withdrawal that normally applies to distance contracts does not apply to leisure services provided on a specific date. This is normal for guided trips and it is why insurance matters.
Flying trips depend on weather, airspace and ground conditions, and the daily plan will change to suit them. That is not a change to your contract, it is the trip working as intended. Where we have to make a significant change to a main feature of the trip before departure, we will tell you without delay and you may accept it, accept a substitute we offer, or cancel and receive a full refund.
We may cancel a trip if too few people book, provided we tell you at least 20 days before departure for a trip of more than six days, or if we are prevented by unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances. In either case you receive a full refund of everything you have paid us, within 14 days. We are not liable for costs you have incurred separately, such as flights booked independently, which is another reason to insure.
Paragliding is an air sport with inherent risks that cannot be removed by good organisation, good equipment or good judgement. Those risks include serious injury and death.
By booking you confirm that you understand this and that you choose to take part anyway. Specifically, you acknowledge that:
You are responsible for holding a valid licence, for flying within the limits of your own experience and current fitness, for the airworthiness of your own equipment, and for complying with the air law of the country you are flying in.
Before departure we will ask you to complete our Participant Agreement, which records your licence, experience, insurance, emergency contact and any medical information relevant to flying. Participation is conditional on it.
Minimum requirement. Unless the trip page states otherwise, you need an IPPI 2, APPI or equivalent national rating, and you must be able to launch yourself and land out on your own. Tell us honestly about your experience, recency and fitness when you book. We may refuse or end participation if we judge, at our sole discretion, that a participant is not safe to fly with the group, is unfit, or is affecting the safety or enjoyment of others. Where we do that for good reason, no refund is due.
You must hold travel and accident insurance that covers paragliding as an activity, at the altitudes flown on the trip, and that includes helicopter search and rescue, mountain rescue, medical treatment and repatriation. Cover that excludes air sports is not sufficient, and a policy that covers "adventure sports" generally often excludes paragliding, so read the wording.
We may ask for proof of cover before departure and may refuse participation without it. You remain responsible for rescue and medical costs your policy does not meet.
We are responsible for performing the travel services included in your booking with reasonable skill and care, and for putting things right where we do not.
We do not ask you to sign away your right to claim for negligence, and we could not do so if we tried. Under Norwegian and EU law, a term that excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence is not binding. Any waiver you may have signed with an operator elsewhere that purports to do this has no effect here.
We are not responsible for a failure that is attributable to you, to a third party unconnected with the travel services and unforeseeable or unavoidable, or to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances. Where our liability is capped by an international convention that applies to a service, that cap applies here too.
Nothing in these terms limits your rights under the Package Travel Act or other mandatory consumer law.
You are responsible for your own equipment throughout the trip. Anything we lend you is to be returned in the condition it was given, fair wear and tear aside, and you are responsible for loss or damage beyond that.
Flying under the influence of alcohol or drugs is not permitted and will end your participation immediately, without refund. The same applies to behaviour that endangers or seriously disrupts other participants or local people.
We often photograph and film our trips, and we may want to use those images in our own marketing, on this site, in the podcast, or on social media. If you would prefer not to appear, tell us at any point, before or after the trip, and we will not use images in which you are identifiable. You do not need to give a reason, and it will not affect your booking.
Tell your guide at the time, so we have the chance to fix it while you are still on the trip. If it cannot be resolved there, write to us at aninder@paraglidingatlas.com and we will reply within a reasonable time.
If we cannot settle it between us, you can bring the matter to the Norwegian Package Travel Complaints Board, Pakkereisenemnda. If you live elsewhere in the EEA you may also use the European Commission's online dispute resolution platform, and you keep the right to bring proceedings in the courts of the country where you live.
How we handle your data is set out in our Privacy Policy. In short, we collect what we need to run your booking and to keep you safe on the trip, including emergency contact and relevant medical information, and we do not sell it to anyone.
These terms are governed by Norwegian law. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere in the EEA, this does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory rules of the country where you live.
If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.
We may update these terms. The version that applies to your booking is the one published when you booked, and we will send it with your confirmation. The date at the top of this page shows when this version was published.
Email aninder@paraglidingatlas.com, or write to Paragliding Atlas, Olav Troviks Vei M 46, Oslo, Norway.