Flight from Norwich delayed to Turkey

jcfamily

Hi we were delayed several hours and ended up being bussed to Stanstead to fly to Turkey. I have been getting no response from Pegasus airlanes and have gone to the CAA who have sent the following response:
We have asked all airlines to reconsider complaints against this new guidance, in case they previously rejected them using different criteria from the current guidance. We therefore sent compensation cases back to the airlines for reassessment. If the airline still maintains the disruption was due to extraordinary circumstances, they must provide further information to the CAA to justify their position.
However, I regret to inform you that your airline has not responded to us with the information we need to assess the “extraordinary circumstances” defence that has been used by Pegasus Airlines in your case, or whether appropriate measures were taken to avoid the disruption.
The CAA tries to help passengers with complaints as part of our general commitment to support passengers. We do not have legal powers in this area: either to force the airlines to respond to us, nor to impose a solution. We are not an ombudsman scheme, and our view is not legally binding. Given this, we fear that we are reaching the limit of what we can do for you.
In general, the burden of proof on the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ exception in the regulation lies on the airlines. So we feel that, in the absence of any information from the airline to justify that your flight disruption fell under this exception, the exception does not apply and compensation may be due. However, we must warn you that, if you took court action so as to seek this compensation, it is possible that further information would emerge that meant compensation was not payable.
Our view in this case is based on the lack of evidence provided by the airline, and therefore only relates to the flight concerned.
If the airline still refuses to compensate you, it is for you to decide whether you wish to take further action on your complaint in court, as unfortunately there is nothing more we can do on your behalf.


Any advice?

Vauban

CAA are hopeless as you can see. How anyone can describe them as a National Enforcement Body is beyond me.

There are email contact addresses for European Compensation on Pegasus' website, but I have no idea if they work. Do they have an effective presence in the UK against which you could start a small claim in the Court? I suspect not.

Interesting that the CAA takes the view that there is no consequence for the airline if they fail to respond to their requests for information. You might write to a consumer or travel journo (such as Simon Calder) to see if the CAA can be shamed into a more active stance!

But the other lesson of course for others reading this is don't fly Pegasus - because you won't have the protections that other airlines give you.

photome

Vauban wrote: »

CAA are hopeless as you can see. How anyone can describe them as a National Enforcement Body is beyond me.

There are email contact addresses for European Compensation on Pegasus' website, but I have no idea if they work. Do they have an effective presence in the UK against which you could start a small claim in the Court? I suspect not.

Interesting that the CAA takes the view that there is no consequence for the airline if they fail to respond to their requests for information. You might write to a consumer or travel journo (such as Simon Calder) to see if the CAA can be shamed into a more active stance!

But the other lesson of course for others reading this is don't fly Pegasus - because you won't have the protections that other airlines give you.

The family may be from Norwich and if they want to fly from Norwich Pegasus are the only option.

Is there no other body that the OP can contact?

Vauban

photome wrote: »

The family may be from Norwich and if they want to fly from Norwich Pegasus are the only option.

Perhaps. But they could always choose a different airport? Stansted for example can only be 80 miles away, and presumably offers a wider range of routes/airlines. You pays your money and takes your choice.

photome wrote: »

Is there no other body that the OP can contact?

Not that I am aware of. They could try the European Consumer Centre, but I don't know whether they would take this on given the issue relates to a company outside of the EU (albeit operating within it): they might argue this is for national bodies to deal with. The OP can get details of them here: http://www.ukecc.net/