Back in 2009 a handful of passengers took some of the big airlines to the European Court of Justice seeking compensation for flight delays. They won their cases and the Court ruled that airlines should pay passengers compensation for flight delays over 3 hours (€250 per passenger for European flights) unless the delay was caused by ‘extraordinary events’ beyond the control of the airline (weather, strikes, volcano eruptions etc.) August 2012 In August 2012 our holiday flight to Faro was delayed by over 3 hours and being aware of the landmark cases I decided to submit a compensation claim to the airline. The airline in question will remain nameless during this account but having read many online press articles their behaviour seems to be the industry norm. September 2012 After several weeks I got a very polite response from the airline apologising for the delay and also stating that because the EU ruling had been challenged by the airlines, they were unable to consider my claim but I could resubmit it if the original ruling was upheld; it seems that the EU beaurocrats in Brussels had been pontificating the airlines’ challenge to their own ruling for over 3 years! November 2012 Finally the original ruling was upheld and legal precedent (EC261/2004) set for flight compensation. So I resubmitted my claim thinking it was now a formality. Wrong! The airline then began their own beaurocratic stalling and before ‘assessing my claim’ they needed detailed claim forms to be completed for each member of our party and original records of our bookings. This I did. February After 3 months the airline finally responded to by claim with the ‘outcome of their internal investigation’. They acknowledged the flight delay and the EU legal ruling but declined to pay compensation on the following grounds :- “our records show that an auxiliary power unit failure rendered the aircraft unsafe to operate….insufficient aircraft from within our fleet to operate your flight in time ……….as a consequence your flight was unavoidably delayed ...blah blah blah”. They went on to say that passengers were transferred to the next aircraft from within the fleet to become available. In short they were playing the ‘extraordinary circumstance’ get out of jail card in the legislation. By now my blood was boiling because not only were the airline flagrantly misinterpreting the law, they were lying too and anyway the cause of the delay was entirely under their control and not ‘extraordinary’. What actually happened on the day was it took them over 3 hours to get a spare part to Gatwick airport from their maintenance base in another London airport (details the airline were publically broadcasting at the time to placate passengers). There was no ‘next available aircraft’ because we had visibility of the original plane at the departure gate the whole time. March 2013 I decided to appeal to the Civil Aviation Authority for arbitration. This was a complete waste of time and to this day they have added no value. June 2013 Having given up on the CAA’s ability to do its arbitration job, I was faced with a simple choice: let the airline get away with it or take them to court. I decided that the £70 HM Courts & Tribunal Service administration fee (the online small claims court) was a risk worth taking (hell the airline were lying and legal precedent was on my side). From this point the entire process became efficient and responsive. Within 2 weeks the airline were summoned and given 14 days to respond which they did promptly, stating that …………………………..they would defend their position. At this point I was preparing myself for an appearance on Judge Judy when to my complete surprise a letter arrived from HM Court&Tribunal Service stating ‘please find enclosed a full admission from the defendant’. July 2013 10 days later a cheque arrived from the airline to the amount of 5x€250 + £70 court fee.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 15:42:23 +0000
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