'Operating airline'?

clippy_girl

I will try and keep this brief! I have put the history below my query.

I have obtained a default notice in judgement against easyjet and they have today sent me an application notice to set asdide the judgement for two reasons-

1. they did not receive the claim form.

This was sent by Salford CC and was returned marked 'return to sender'

2. They state whilst they are the contracting airline they were not the operating airline as they got Astraeus Ltd to operate it so its their fault.

At no point have they ever told me this before as then we may not have even started the claim against them. The plane was easyjet branded and manned by easyjet staff.

Astraeus Ltd are in administration but could possibly go through S.75.

However, I have looked at the reg which states it is the 'operating airline' who pays compensation. Regulation 2 states-
(b) "operating air carrier" means an air carrier that performs or intends to perform a flight under a contract with a passenger or
on behalf of another person, legal or natural, having a contract with that passenger

so my understanding of this is both easyjet and astraeus are operating airlines and so either could have proceedings brought against them??

Thanks


Brief history

June 2010- delay of nearly 5 hours, captain told us they only aquiired plane the day before and painted it, paint took longer to dry than thought which caused delay.

Aug 2014- when i sent nba to them they claimed they were denied refueling in dublin which caused delay going to LGW to get to marrakech. they alleged extraordinary circs

Sept 14- Started claim via salford (3 claimants) who sent claim to easyjet. claim form returned to court marked 'return to sender'

Sept 14- I sent back the notice of judgement as no response in 14 days so obtained CCJ

Oct 14- easyjet sent judgement and given until 29 Oct to pay

Alan_Bowen

The operating carrier is the airline you flew with. If it was booked with Easyjet and flown under an EZY flight number then I would suggest the carrier was easyjet. It sounds as though it may have been a 'dry lease' this means they just rent the plane and crew and fuel it themselves, easyjet did have huge problems in the summer of 2010 due to shortages of crew and may have been hiring in aircraft but I would have expected them to be staffed by Astreaus crew, not least because I seem to recall Easyjet has an all Airbus fleet (at least they do now) and Astreaus generally flew Boeing aircraft. If you had been advised at check in you were flying with Astreaus and had their boarding card, then they would be the operating airline but as you know, they do not exist anymore

clippy_girl

Hi
Thanks for your reply

The plane was branded easyjet, easyjet staff, easyjet number Etc...

The seat covers and safety cards had another airline logo on. The captain said they had just acquired it and re sprayed it.

As far as we were concerned, it was easyjets plane that they had just got from another airline.

It was a completely different situation than us going on another airlines scheduled flight like has happened when I've booked with Iberia and been specifically informed we would be flying ba on a ba plane with ba customers etc....

111KAB

Do you know the registration of the plane? If not advise actual time/date/route of the flight and I will see if I can check owner register for you.

clippy_girl

Hi, thanks for the offer but assuming they have given me the correct registration it was registered to Astraeus Ltd at the appropriate time as they have sent me the cginfo document.

i would like to know whether they actually leased the plane and operated it themselves as it was their staff and the plane had been resprayed white with the easyjet logo and orange bits. there was no indication it was not easyjets plane as the captain said they had just acquired it.

so a very different situation from where you buy a ticket with one airline and they put you on a plane clearly operated by another.

clippy_girl

they have also sent another document which they allege shows when that plane was allocated to that flight and that it was not taken off that aircraft.
it looks like some kind of flight software with details of the flight with the letters 'sub' in the box next to the reg number.

Vauban

The Regulation says clearly that:

7) In order to ensure the effective application of this Regulation, the obligations that it creates should rest with the operating air carrier who performs or intends to perform a flight, whether with owned aircraft, under dry or wet lease, or on any other basis.

If you booked with the Easyjet airline, rhe Regulation is clear they are responsible. If you booked an easyJet holiday, perhaps not.

111KAB

clippy_girl wrote: »

Hi, thanks for the offer but assuming they have given me the correct registration it was registered to Astraeus Ltd at the appropriate time as they have sent me the cginfo document.

i would like to know whether they actually leased the plane and operated it themselves as it was their staff and the plane had been resprayed white with the easyjet logo and orange bits. there was no indication it was not easyjets plane as the captain said they had just acquired it.

Virtually all planes in operation are leased - very few are owned by the airlines but without the registration it is impossible to say if it was being leased by easyJet at the time.

clippy_girl

I have the registration number - G-OJIB

From what I can see then it seems pretty clear they are the operating air carrier. It appears the other option in the definition is to cover the cases where you go on another airlines actual flight rather than your airline simply using their plane.

clippy_girl

do you think its worth doing a dpa request to caa for the leasing details at that time for the registration number?

111KAB

clippy_girl wrote: »

do you think its worth doing a dpa request to caa for the leasing details at that time for the registration number?

Do not approach the CAA - the useless, worthless, toothless friend of the airlines. I will check Jethro for you re the registration.