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My flight from Gatwick on Friday night was delayed due to ATC restrictions earlier in the day for weather. Would I be eligible for compensation for my flight as the weather didn’t impact my flight directly but it impacted flights much earlier in the day that caused a backlog and the plane to be delayed? Or would this fall under something that is outside of the airline’s control?
My flight from Gatwick on Friday night was delayed due to ATC restrictions earlier in the day for weather. Would I be eligible for compensation for my flight as the weather didn’t impact my flight directly but it impacted flights much earlier in the day that caused a backlog and the plane to be delayed? Or would this fall under something that is outside of the airline’s control?
Recital 15 of EC261 allows for this and the CJEU decision in WZ v Austrian Airlines [at 57] goes further, deciding than an airline can rely upon ‘extraordinary circumstances’ affecting the aircraft up to three rotations back, provided that there is a direct causal link.
Thanks JDB
I had a similar rejected compensation complaint from EasyJet. Would be good to get the opinion of people smarter than me on whether you think they are justified:
As your flight needed to be cancelled for reasons outside of our control, unfortunately we’re unable to offer you compensation as well.
To further explain what happened on the day; air traffic control restrictions substantially regulated the air space due to capacity/staffing issues, which resulted in long delays to flights as aircraft waited for air space ‘slots’ to operate, sometimes for several hours. Ultimately and in the case of this flight, the delays pushed our crew into their maximum legal operating hours. There are strict industry wide rules on the number of hours our crew are allowed to work. To protect the safety of our customers and crew, these hours cannot be exceeded. This delay pushed your flight into the curfew at Amsterdam (AMS) which meant we had no option but to cancel your flight. We do take reasonable measures to avoid delays and cancellations to our flights by having replacement crews and spare aircraft available in our network. In the circumstances, these options were not possible as the cancellation to your flight was a direct result of air traffic control restrictions.
Their version of events does differ slightly from what actually happened before departure, as the pilot announced that despite being 2hrs late, we were being held at the gate to allow more passengers from an earlier cancelled flight to board. To me this is an operational decision made by EasyJet which ultimately delayed the flight further pushing it past either the crews hours of the AMS curfew (Easyjet appear to be trying claim both apply which is odd..)
Thoughts?
@spellman – if there’s a compound delay as appears to have happened here, easyJet can deduct the hours/minutes caused by ATC from the total and neither AviationADR nor a court is going to get into the ifs and buts of waiting for other passengers, crew hours etc. The information provided to you by the pilot doesn’t sound entirely inconsistent with the written reasons. If you don’t agree with easyJet, you need to escalate to AviationADR who will oblige easyJet to provide a more detailed/clearer basis for claiming ‘extraordinary circumstances’
Thanks @JDB I’ve challenged their initial rejection and asked for a final position statement so I have the option of AviationADR
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