Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Ryanair ONLY

SuperReds08

I posted on 24th Jan (#35 on this thread) and contacted the CAA who 'passed on' my complaint to Ryanair. The CAA did not give any opinion of whether I had a claim or not. However, it did illicit a response from Ryanair today (which to be honest is progress as my last two letters had been ignored!).

The key paragraphs as follows:

On behalf of Ryanair, we sincerely apologise for the diversion of your flight the FR9142 from Stansted to Faro on the 23/6/2011. Unfortunately, this flight was diverted to Malaga airport due to operational difficulties as a result of an earlier technical safety/technical problem with the aircraft due to operate your flight, outside of our control.

We can assure you that Ryanair took all reasonable measures to prevent this diversion. Please note that when flights are delayed for reasons outside of the control of an airline, monetary compensation is not applicable under EU Reg 261/2004.

Do I go to Court now or should I be asking for more detail in respect of the "technical safety/technical problem" before doing so?

blondmark

This information has been redacted

Mark2spark

But start filling in the court paperwork now :rotfl:

julesg78

Does anybody know if we are going to send the court form a can we put more than one booking ref? We did three separate bookings for flight in October 2010, 12 people in total, do we just put all three on one court form or do we have to do 3 forms? Or will we have to do a form for each person?
Please help?

therealt

blondmark wrote: »

Look under 'Money Claims' HERE. Because my claim was for between £1,000.01 - £1,500 and it was a court issued claim, I had to pay £80.00.

Yes you sure can get it free. Go HERE.

Need a fuller story before knowing if you have a claim. What are the airline saying? How come other flights were leaving and not yours? Were other flights from your particular airline leaving? How long were you delayed? etc.

I have not written to Ryanair (recorded delivery not cheap!) but I definitely will if you think I stand a good chance. Here are the salient points (data from Flightstats):

• There was heavy snowfall in the morning
• My flight was due to depart at 0830
• The earliest flight with any airline was at 0914
• The earliest flight with Ryanair was at 1020
• Between 1000 and 1400, Ryanair averaged 7.25 flights/hour (the average slowly dropped to about 6.3)
• None of the flights after 0900 were cancelled, and a cursory inspection suggests none were delayed more than two hours.
• The next flight to my destination left at 1455
• The flight I actually boarded to my destination left at 1957 (almost 12 hours late)

Possibly irrelevant information:

• The passengers for my flight were told to collect our luggage and get on a bus to another airport.
• At the other airport, the Servisair staff naturally had no idea what was happening.
• They gave us two choices: one, fly out from that airport to another city in the same country and take a bus to our original destination or two, take a bus back to the original airport and get on the next flight.
• I chose option 2 and got on the flight that finally left at 1957 (scheduled 1900).

Caz3121

therealt wrote: »

I have not written to Ryanair (recorded delivery not cheap!) but I definitely will if you think I stand a good chance. Here are the salient points (data from Flightstats):

• There was heavy snowfall in the morning
• My flight was due to depart at 0830
• The earliest flight with any airline was at 0914
• The earliest flight with Ryanair was at 1020
• Between 1000 and 1400, Ryanair averaged 7.25 flights/hour (the average slowly dropped to about 6.3)
• None of the flights after 0900 were cancelled, and a cursory inspection suggests none were delayed more than two hours.
• The next flight to my destination left at 1455
• The flight I actually boarded to my destination left at 1957 (almost 12 hours late)

Not sure about how many passengers were on your flight and the 1455 departure but when your 08:30 flight was cancelled there may not have been enough seats on the 14:55 flight to fit the original load plus the load from the cancelled flight. They should put you on the 'next available flight' but obviously than need to have seats available for you to sit on

The issue you are likely to have is that it sounds like your flight was cancelled due to weather which is an EC

was the 19:00 departure a scheduled flight or was this the revised time for your 08:30 departure?

therealt

Caz3121 wrote: »

Not sure about how many passengers were on your flight and the 1455 departure but when your 08:30 flight was cancelled there may not have been enough seats on the 14:55 flight to fit the original load plus the load from the cancelled flight. They should put you on the 'next available flight' but obviously than need to have seats available for you to sit on

The issue you are likely to have is that it sounds like your flight was cancelled due to weather which is an EC

was the 19:00 departure a scheduled flight or was this the revised time for your 08:30 departure?

I agree with you with regards to the 14:55 flight being full.

The flight was canceled due to weather, but there were Ryanair (and other carriers') flights going out before the two hours were up. Doesn't this mean that Ryanair made an operational decision to prioritise those flights?

The fact that the 1900 flight was a scheduled flight could imply that Ryanair intentionally made us wait for 12 hours to avoid having to fly out with less than a full load.

Caz3121

therealt wrote: »

I agree with you with regards to the 14:55 flight being full.

The flight was canceled due to weather, but there were Ryanair (and other carriers') flights going out before the two hours were up. Doesn't this mean that Ryanair made an operational decision to prioritise those flights?

The fact that the 1900 flight was a scheduled flight could imply that Ryanair intentionally made us wait for 12 hours to avoid having to fly out with less than a full load.

I guess trying to fit extra slots into a schedule is more difficult in some airports than others.
The flight was cancelled due to the weather. If they had decided to delay it instead (still operating but at a later time) they would need to have negotiated another slot with ATC, which may have ended up being later that 19:00, and you would still have had no compensation due as the original delay would have been due to weather

therealt

Caz3121 wrote: »

I guess trying to fit extra slots into a schedule is more difficult in some airports than others.
The flight was cancelled due to the weather. If they had decided to delay it instead (still operating but at a later time) they would need to have negotiated another slot with ATC, which may have ended up being later that 19:00, and you would still have had no compensation due as the original delay would have been due to weather

Thanks for the harsh dose of reality. I was hoping against hope that I'd have a legitimate case, but it does seem like the airport was clogged up throughout the day because of the snow in the morning.

This is what's bugging me: if Ryanair had flown people out in sequence (i.e. 6.30am flight first, then 6.45am, then 7am etc.), instead of just taking the easy way out and canceling all the flights before a certain time, I might have been delayed by only about 5 hours rather than 12. The only thing I can think of that would stop them from doing that would really be unalterable filed flight plans. I'm unhappy that the people on flights scheduled after, say, 9.30am only had to wait a few hours (jumping the queue in a sense).

On the other hand, it makes sense for Ryanair to do that, because otherwise those people could've sued Ryanair for delaying their flights with no cause.

topyam

topyam wrote: »

Sent them a letter re a delay and was told they are not paying compensation as the delay was due to 'operational reasons' and this is classed as 'extraordinary' circumstances. Is this right? Can't see much detail on 'operational reasons'

Took my case to the CAA who contacted Ryanair re this - Next I see is a letter from Ryanair saying they'll pay up - have just received the cash in my account - really can't believe it! Yay!!