Flight delay compensation, all other EU airlines

meinirann

I was on a delayed Aer Lingus flight (5 hour delay) in May 2012 and tried to claim compensation off them after I came home, which they refused, although as a "good will gesture", they offered me a £51 voucher to use against my next Aer Lingus flight, valid for one year. I did not use that voucher as I am not a regular flyer, especially with Aer Lingus. I have only flown once since, and that was with BA. Anyway, since then, these new rules have come in. Am I able to make another claim for compensation? I'm sure it was a technical fault, meaning the circumstances weren't beyond their control if what I read on MSE is correct.

Caz3121

you need to start here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4896454 and have a good read of these threads

ukgoalie32

Good afternoon all,

I was booked on Aer Lingus flight EI3721on Friday 14th March 2014 from Manchester to Cork with the scheduled departure time of 09:15.

Due to high winds the flight was cancelled, which I appreciate was no fault of Aer Lingus' and was an [FONT=&quot]'extraordinary circumstance'.

Instead, we were transferred on to the 15:25 flight from Manchester, arriving in Dublin at 16:20 and then travelled to Cork via coach (put on by Aer Lingus) eventually arriving at Cork Airport10 hours and 10 minutes late.

Whilst I appreciate that the originally cancelled flight was due to poor weather and therefore not able to be claimed against I am aware that the weather subsided in Cork soon after our flight was cancelled and flights began arriving in Cork (I had friends on the flight from Heathrow which arrived at 15:20). I therefore feel that Aer Lingus are liable for the delay caused once Cork Airport was operational which equates to more than 3 hours.

I would appreciate any guidance or assistance with this matter before I open up discussions with Aer Lingus. Anyone else had this strange mixture being part due to extraordinary circumstances and partly due to the airline?

Thanks,

Benn Schofield
[/FONT]

richardw

Did they offer you an earlier arrival by re-routing via LHR?

Alan_Bowen

The flights from Cork to Manchester are operated by Aer Lingus Regional which use relatively small prop planes which have very different flying characteristics to the much larger Airbus aircraft used by Aer Lingus mainline flights from London and elsewhere. Believe me, you do not want to be in an ATR 72, which is what Regional use, in high or cross winds, and the flight limitations are lower than many other aircraft. It seems the airline did their best in the circumstances, it will have cost a lot more in the long run for the airline and I would anticipate they will argue strongly that these were extraordinary circumstances beyond their control

ukgoalie32

Gents, thanks for your responses and assistance.

richardw - Apolgies, I should have clarified that the flight from LHR was through Ryanair which a friend was travelling on to meet us in Cork. There was very likely earlier flights which were able to arrive in Cork after the bad weather had passed.

Is there a way of viewing a list of flights which arrived in Cork on Friday 14th March?

There was a later Aer Lingus flight from Manchester to Cork (16:40 departure) however this was sold out.

Alan Bowen - whilst I appreciate that Aer Lingus were unable to make the 09:15 flight work due to poor weather surely any delay after that time at which the plane could have set off (once the weather had subsided) is a fault of the airlines - regardless of cost to them?

Many thanks for your assistance so far - I am looking to put as strong of a case forward as possible.

Regards,

Ben

Vauban

ukgoalie32 wrote: »

Gents, thanks for your responses and assistance.

richardw - Apolgies, I should have clarified that the flight from LHR was through Ryanair which a friend was travelling on to meet us in Cork. There was very likely earlier flights which were able to arrive in Cork after the bad weather had passed.

Is there a way of viewing a list of flights which arrived in Cork on Friday 14th March?

There was a later Aer Lingus flight from Manchester to Cork (16:40 departure) however this was sold out.

Alan Bowen - whilst I appreciate that Aer Lingus were unable to make the 09:15 flight work due to poor weather surely any delay after that time at which the plane could have set off (once the weather had subsided) is a fault of the airlines - regardless of cost to them?

Many thanks for your assistance so far - I am looking to put as strong of a case forward as possible.

Regards,

Ben

To be honest, the fact that the weather changed again once the flight was cancelled is unlikely to weigh heavily in your favour - IMHO, of course. I doubt a court would consider it reasonable that the airplane and crew - possibly a new crew - should be on standby for this eventuality.

You are better off, I'd suggest, applying the "third question" of the Wallentin judgment: did the airline use all their resources, once the flight was cancelled, to get you on your way. To show they didn't I reckon you need to show an alternative arrangement that they could have offered you but failed to. Is there a credible way they could have got you to your destination much earlier - that's the test.

To be honest, I don't think your case is strong. But good luck whatever you choose to do.

Mark2spark

Just a thought, is it worth checking how many times the 'small prop planes' get delayed (or cancelled) due to bad weather?
Just that a 'reasonable measure', given that the type of plane used on the route isn't always suitable, might have a higher bar to satisfy?

Alan_Bowen

I think you are really stretching the issue if you start questioning the type of aircraft used. Aer Lingus Regional only has ATR planes, they fly routes with insufficient demand for larger planes and this winter has been particularly windy, Flybe with their prop planes have also had serious problems. The alternative is no service on a particular route at all, or an airline ceasing to exist

Caz3121

ukgoalie32 wrote: »

Is there a way of viewing a list of flights which arrived in Cork on Friday 14th March?

There was a later Aer Lingus flight from Manchester to Cork (16:40 departure) however this was sold out.

Alan Bowen - whilst I appreciate that Aer Lingus were unable to make the 09:15 flight work due to poor weather surely any delay after that time at which the plane could have set off (once the weather had subsided) is a fault of the airlines - regardless of cost to them?

Flightstats will show you the arrivals for that day

The later flight ended up arriving in Cork at 20:40 so you probably beat it

When there is bad weather a decision has to be made whether to cancel a flight or delay it. Once it is cancelled it is cancelled. If it is delayed they are then in the hands of Air Traffic Control to agree a new slot - it is not just a case of the weather clearing and everyone deciding that they can fly now - airspace is very strictly controlled and when a flight has missed it's allocated slot it can be hours before they are allocated a new one