Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Easyjet ONLY

KatieH1989

Hi all

I have searched for the answer to this and read lots of threads on this forum, but have not been able to find a similar situation therefore am hoping that you will be able to help.

We flew from Stansted to Dubrovnik on 7 October. We were due to land at 10.40am (local time). We could not land due to bad weather, therefore diverted to Zadar where we landed at approx 12.00 (local time). We sat on the plane for about an hour, while the decision was being made as to whether to re-fuel and fly to Dubrovnik or whether we would need to get a coach.

We were then instructed to get off the plane and waited for a coach, which arrived at approximately 13.30. We were then driven to Dubrovnik airport where we arrived at approximately 19.40 (9 hours later than we were due to arrive).

I understand that we are not entitled to compensation if the delay is caused by bad weather, however our (empty of customers) plane did subsequently land at Dubrovnik at 13.50 in order to make the return flight to Stansted. I am therefore wondering whether it would be possible for us to claim compensation, as Easyjet's decision for us to take the coach rather than flying from Zadar to Dubrovnik caused a further approx. six hour delay, as demonstrated by the plane landing at 13.50.

Any thoughts would be very welcome - thank you.

JPears

Sorry, no claim under regulation 261/2004 as it was due to weather affecting your flight.
EJ may have decided that continuing the plane to Dubrovnik to attempt a landing of the plane without passengers, was an acceptable risk. They may have had to abort. If you had been on that plane and had to go back to Zadar, you would have been delayed even further?

knack92

KatieH1989 wrote: »

Hi all

I have searched for the answer to this and read lots of threads on this forum, but have not been able to find a similar situation therefore am hoping that you will be able to help.

We flew from Stansted to Dubrovnik on 7 October. We were due to land at 10.40am (local time). We could not land due to bad weather, therefore diverted to Zadar where we landed at approx 12.00 (local time). We sat on the plane for about an hour, while the decision was being made as to whether to re-fuel and fly to Dubrovnik or whether we would need to get a coach.

We were then instructed to get off the plane and waited for a coach, which arrived at approximately 13.30. We were then driven to Dubrovnik airport where we arrived at approximately 19.40 (9 hours later than we were due to arrive).

I understand that we are not entitled to compensation if the delay is caused by bad weather, however our (empty of customers) plane did subsequently land at Dubrovnik at 13.50 in order to make the return flight to Stansted. I am therefore wondering whether it would be possible for us to claim compensation, as Easyjet's decision for us to take the coach rather than flying from Zadar to Dubrovnik caused a further approx. six hour delay, as demonstrated by the plane landing at 13.50.

Any thoughts would be very welcome - thank you.

Interesting to read this as I was on the return flight to Edinburgh (I did think the arriving flight was from Edinburgh too and not Stansted). Sounds frustrating and I'm thankful that our delay was brief by comparison and didn't require any coach journeys. Hope it didn't impact your trip too much.

Did they make multiple attempts at landing? Other flights were arriving around the same time your flight was due so I wonder what the problem was.

JPears wrote: »

Sorry, no claim under regulation 261/2004 as it was due to weather affecting your flight.
EJ may have decided that continuing the plane to Dubrovnik to attempt a landing of the plane without passengers, was an acceptable risk. They may have had to abort. If you had been on that plane and had to go back to Zadar, you would have been delayed even further?

If you have a chance I'd be keen to hear your opinion on my flight - thanks

knack92 wrote: »

Flew Dubrovnik-Edinburgh on 7th October which arrived about 3:30 late due to diversion of the earlier Edinburgh-Dubrovnik flight. Apparently the incoming plane couldn’t land due to high winds despite multiple attempts.

I’ve put the details into EU Claim who say ECs apply in this case however I’m confused by this as the weather did not directly affect my flight. Also, many other flights managed to land around the time of the incoming flight which suggests to me this wasn’t just down to the wind.

Do others agree I have a claim worth pursuing?

Tyzap

Hi KatieH1989 and Knack92,

It seems, from watching an app replay, that there were 3 EJ flight due at Dubrovnik (DBV) around the same time. They were from Stansted (STN), Edinburgh (EDI) and Gatwick (LGW). There was some holding, so I presume the weather was not too good.

The strange thing is that the EJ flight from LGW managed to land okay but the other two EJ flights both diverted to Zadar, pretty much at the other end of the country. They both overflew Split on the way to Zadar, possibly for a good reason, which could have halved the transfer time.

At around the same time the flights from STN and EDI were diverting to Zadar, other flights were landing at DBV without too much of a problem. They included flights from Barcelona, Istanbul, BA from Gatwick and Norwegian also from Gatwick. I could not see any other flights divert away to another airport. This suggests that the weather was not too bad.

The two aircraft that diverted to Zadar did fly back to DBV, the EDI flight arrived at DBV at around 12.50 and the flight from STN arrived at around 13.30.

Knack92,
If EJ want to play hard ball, ask them to refer your claim to CEDR where you can point out that your flight was affected by a knock on delay due to an earlier delay to the aircraft. Your claim should be 'easier' than Katie's as there is a legal precedent for the adjudicator to follow. (yes, pun intended)

Katie,
You could do the same as Knack92, but point out that other flights, including EJ, were landing at very similar times to your flight arrival time, and that no other flights were diverted. Let the adjudicator at CEDR decide, as I only see your chances of success at 50/50. Worth asking tho.

Good luck.

KatieH1989

Hi Tyzap

Thank you for your very informative response. I did mean to mention that I thought other flights were landing around the same time, and it is helpful to know that you have found facts to back this up. Please could I ask what App you are using for the data?

Another thing to mention is that we were not provided with any food or drinks (nor vouchers to buy these). The airport cafe at Zadar actually ran out of sandwiches as it was not expecting to cater for two extra flights! We subsequently received an email to say that we may be able to claim for expenses incurred, but I know that people at the time did not have local currency to buy snacks on our two coach stops, where the shops only accepted cash and not cards.

I will pursue with EasyJet in the first instance and let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for your help.

Tyzap

Hi KatieH1989,

I use Plane Finder but there are others, most notably, Flight Radar24. You will need the premium upgrade to use historic data unfortunately.

Good luck.

knack92

Tyzap - thanks for this very helpful information and allaying my confusion about the origin of the EJ flight(s).

Is there any legal precedent besides the case mentioned in Vauban’s guide?

Tyzap

knack92 wrote: »

Tyzap - thanks for this very helpful information and allaying my confusion about the origin of the EJ flight(s).

Is there any legal precedent besides the case mentioned in Vauban’s guide?

Hi Knack92,

I believe that the Finnair judgement is all you need, this is the crux of the matter from that judgement...

40 In the light of the foregoing considerations, the answer to the second and third questions is that Articles 2(j) and 4(3) of Regulation No 261/2004 must be interpreted as meaning that the occurrence of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ resulting in an air carrier rescheduling flights after those circumstances arose cannot give grounds for denying boarding on those later flights or for exempting that carrier from its obligation, under Article 4(3) of that regulation, to compensate a passenger to whom it denies boarding on such a flight.

It does not use the specific words 'knock on', but I believe that is what is meant. Lets see what CEDR think!

Good luck.

knack92

Tyzap wrote: »

Hi Knack92,

I believe that the Finnair judgement is all you need, this is the crux of the matter from that judgement...

40 In the light of the foregoing considerations, the answer to the second and third questions is that Articles 2(j) and 4(3) of Regulation No 261/2004 must be interpreted as meaning that the occurrence of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ resulting in an air carrier rescheduling flights after those circumstances arose cannot give grounds for denying boarding on those later flights or for exempting that carrier from its obligation, under Article 4(3) of that regulation, to compensate a passenger to whom it denies boarding on such a flight.

It does not use the specific words 'knock on', but I believe that is what is meant. Lets see what CEDR think!

Good luck.

Great. I'd bookmarked that judgement but hadn't got round to reading it yet so thanks for pointing me to the right part. Have now made initial contact with EJ so will await their response and take it from there.

sheep69

Have searched the 2000 plus posts and didn't find my seemingly unique issue:

Plans were to fly EDI to Stanstead and Stanstead to Ljubjiana, both with easyjet, however, EDI to London flight was delayed and landed 2.5 hours late, so we missed our connection to Slovenia. Our connection time was 2.5 hours too.

Easyjet did manage to get us on another flight (next available) two days later, so we had to spend two nights in London, but they said that as they were a point to point carrier, were not responsible for anything other than getting us there on the next available flight. We had accommodation in Ljubljana that we were already paying for and also had to find accommodation in London and getting there and back from the airport.

Easyjet claim system does not appear to work for this - should it?

They only needed to hold the flight for 40 mins so the 14 people on the EDI flight could make it!!

They also took a flight off of us to redirect to Dubrovnic as we were queuing for it too, that would have made our connection

So briefly, Easyjet flight was 2.5 hrs late leading to us missing our Easyjet connection and causing a 2 day delay, all on same booking ref - can I claim?

Cheers