Need advice for flight delay compensation Transavia

andywuzc

Dear all

I have a question regarding the EU regulation 261/2004 and hope there are some people who can give me some analysis about my situation.
Last week my return flight (Transavia) from Sevilla to Amsterdam was delayed for 21 hours. Initially, the flight was going to depart and was on its way to the take off lane. After standing still for about 15 minutes before the run way, captain said that the control tower told him that a light is not functioning properly and technical department came to the aircraft and found out that the landing gear sensor was faulty. The pilot said this has to be repaired and we have to drive back the aircraft to the pit.
After couple hours of communication, the situation was local technical staff can not repair it because they do not have the part here and this part need to be brought from far away by engineer by flight to Malaga and drive 2 hours to Sevilla. We were send to hotel by bus and they told us that the flight will be departing at 5:00pm next day.

I filled a claim on website and got reply that this is an extraordinary circumstance and is therefore not compensable according to EU 261/2004 regulation.
After that, I found few sites which teach how to defend this by putting stress on stating that aircraft component will fault one way or another one day and proper contingent plan for replacement or fast access to parts on location would avoid this kind of long delay.
Example from the 261/2006 says "extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken".

My questions are "Landing gear sensor" will be considered as extraordinary circumstance that need to be maintained or check regularly and they have no control about this failure that falls into extraordinary event? Second question is about "could not have been avoided if reasonable measures were taken"
I gave 2 reasons that the delay could be avoided if proper parts are in easy access and that captain said " another option would be sending another aircraft here to pickup passengers but the cost (18000Euro) is financially not feasible due to profit and loss. Are these arguments valid?
What is my chance of winning this in court in case they do not compensate or stop replying my emails.
Also within 21 hours we only had 1 breakfast (in hotel) and a dinner at the airport before departing. Two meals in 21 hours is not reasonable. After we arrived to hotel we went to Domino's pizza. Can this be refunded if i show the receipt?

Thank you very much for any input..

David_e

andywuzc wrote: »

Are these arguments valid?

The law is on your side.

I assume you would have to bring a legal claim in Holland

andywuzc

David_e wrote: »

The law is on your side.

I assume you would have to bring a legal claim in Holland

Wow, thanks for this fast reply..
What is this legal claim.

richardw

Are you resident in the UK or the Netherlands?

David_e

andywuzc wrote: »

Wow, thanks for this fast reply..
What is this legal claim.

They have refused to pay you so in order to get your compensation it will probably be necessary to take them to court.

I thought that would have to be in Holland but that was just an assumption and richardw may know better.

andywuzc

David_e wrote: »

They have refused to pay you so in order to get your compensation it will probably be necessary to take them to court.

I thought that would have to be in Holland but that was just an assumption and richardw may know better.

Hello

I really appreciate for your replies because I need it badly.
I live in Amsterdam and not in UK. So far Transavia just reply me once after my initial claim but after I saw their reply with extraordinary circumstance bullock. I wrote more specifically according to advice from websites. I shall wait until they reply and how they are going to couple my reply mail. If they try to fool me with other stuffs without providing me proofs that the situation was unavoidable. I will start treatment then with initiation of court procedure as well as report to civil aviation council.

BTW here is what they replied:

"You request compensation based on rulings by the European Court of Justice. Your flight was delayed due to a technical problem. After departure from the gate, a problem occurred with a switch on the landing gear. Unfortunately the local technical staff could not solve the problem. Technical staff and spare parts were sent to Seville to repair the aircraft. After the aircraft was repaired, we transported you to Amsterdam. This is an extraordinary circumstance that we could not avoid despite the fact that we took all reasonable measures. When an extraordinary circumstance occurs, you are not entitled to a compensation. You can read more about this in Paragraph 3 of EU Regulation 261/2004. Your flight was delayed due to an extraordinary circumstance.

We are very sorry for the delay. Despite the fact that you are not entitled for compensation, we want to offer you a compensation and refund you the amount of your ticket of the delayed flight concerned. This will compensate the inconvenience of the time you lost as a result of the delay. This is an amount of €65,- per person."


Also an important issue that I noticed from their reply. In the aircraft, captain said Landing Gear Sensor and in the reply they change to switch. This is tricky i think because maybe they prepare to mislead me toward court. Maybe, Switch could be defended as extraordinary situation and sensor can not be. I am sure the captain announced with sensor. Maybe I am too paranoia