6 hour delay due to technical fault, Ryanair say no compensation!

MarkBargain

My recent Ryanair flight from Poland to England was delayed by over 6 hours, so I wrote a letter to Ryanair to ask for the £200 compensation I understood I was entitled to under EU law.

Ryanair replied by email stating the delay was:

"due to an unexpected safety/technical problem with the aircraft due to operate your flight. It was necessary to delay the departure of this flight until the fault was rectified and the aircraft was cleared for operation by our Engineering Department. "

They conclude:

"Occasionally, there are situations which are outside our control such as technical faults that disrupts our flights. As this delay was outside Ryanair's control (Extraordinary Circumstances), we regret to advise that no compensation is due under EU261."

Can someone tell me whether a technical fault on one of their own planes constitutes 'Extraordinary Circumstances'?

Looking at the guide on this website re. compensation it states "Bad weather, industrial action and safety or security issues don't count." I guess therefore in reality airlines hardly ever pay out for delays, so I suppose that's that.

jpsartre

MarkBargain wrote: »

Can someone tell me whether a technical fault on one of their own planes constitutes 'Extraordinary Circumstances'?

It almost certainly doesn't. Refer them to the Wallentin-Hermann ruling which clarifies that technical issues do not generally constitute extraordinary circumstances.

blondmark

jpsartre wrote: »

It almost certainly doesn't. Refer them to the Wallentin-Hermann ruling which clarifies that technical issues do not generally constitute extraordinary circumstances.

Quite so, however Ryanair have invented anonymous legal commentators whose "recently published opinions" are that wallentin-Hermann proves the opposite. You can read this hilarious and extraordinary work of fiction on the 'Ryanair Only' forum link here.

Don't pay any attention though. Just download Form A of the European Small Claims Procedure and sue Ryanair in an English county court. This procedure is also set out in the same forum link.

Louisdf

Did you really encounter £200 in expenses? Are you able to support this with receipts? The greedier people will get, the higher ticket prices will go. Thanks for your altruistic behaviour!

blondmark

Louisdf wrote: »

Did you really encounter £200 in expenses? Are you able to support this with receipts?

What have expenses got to do with anything? This is a statutory legal entitlement to compensate the traveller for the inconvenience suffered. In this case it's against an airline that is amassing tens of millions in unlawful revenue by extracting premiums for exactly this contingency.

richardw

Louisdf wrote: »

.. the higher ticket prices will go....

Not happening though !

"Ryanair STN - RDZ 10:35 21 February 2013 £16"

simongregson

It is not extraordinary circumstances as planes develop technical faults on a daily basis.

Ryanair make the commercial decision to not keep spare aircraft capacity to deal with everyday technical problems, therefore must pay the required compensation.

If they had kept spare aircraft capacity the delay would have been much less.

Ryanair charges I believe £2 extra per ticket to cover its obligations under EU law so have no justification to either raise prices or deny claims.

MarkBargain

jpsartre wrote: »

It almost certainly doesn't. Refer them to the Wallentin-Hermann ruling which clarifies that technical issues do not generally constitute extraordinary circumstances.

Thanks very much for this. I have just read the following article about it: https://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/mar/21/airline-ticket-justice-compensation So, I think I will write again* and quote this, again asking for the 250 Euros compensation.

* It's not possible to reply to Ryanair's email, so I have to pay Airmail postage every time I write.

MarkBargain

blondmark wrote: »

Quite so, however Ryanair have invented anonymous legal commentators whose "recently published opinions" are that wallentin-Hermann proves the opposite. You can read this hilarious and extraordinary work of fiction on the 'Ryanair Only' forum link here.

Don't pay any attention though. Just download Form A of the European Small Claims Procedure and sue Ryanair in an English county court. This procedure is also set out in the same forum link.

Thanks for this. I think I will write to give them a final chance to pay then take the legal action.

MarkBargain

Louisdf wrote: »

Did you really encounter £200 in expenses? Are you able to support this with receipts? The greedier people will get, the higher ticket prices will go. Thanks for your altruistic behaviour!

It's nothing to do with expenses, but rather the 250 Euros compensation for delays over three hours (my delay was over double that!) under EU law. Ryanair charge an 'EU levy' on all flights and I had to pay that on my flight.

Ich_2

If they had kept spare aircraft capacity the delay would have been much less.

Are you sure of that?
I understood from a senior pilot they maintain one spare aircraft for every two bases (i.e. where aircraft and crews are based. Maintenance is not carried out at everyone of these). Which is more than 20 aircraft
They also maintain a small business jet to fly spares and engineers around Europe 24/7.

Reading the court case it looks as though the airline (Alitalia) knew the aircraft was faulty from the night before, which is a bit different that an aircraft going faulty in flight or just prior to taking off. Ryanair aircraft have a very sophisticated system of reporting any faults back to base immediately they land. Some mean they legally cannot then take-off without the fault being rectified.
Is anyone suggesting they keep a full set of spares at every airport they use as well as qualified engineers, just in case, or fly with unsafe aircraft?

The court case talks about the effort put in by the airline to rectify the situation, if they can show the above and what steps they took any further cases could fail.