The Great Hunt: What flights have 'hidden' stopovers?

SW17

richardw wrote: »

Why was that ?

How long was the delay in arriving at Heathrow?

I'd assume because of the fog in Abu Dhabi, EC261/2004 would not apply for weather delays.

richardw

SW17 wrote: »

I'd assume because of the fog in Abu Dhabi, EC261/2004 would not apply for weather delays.

The weather forecast would have told them it was foggy, so why fly into it ?

SW17

richardw wrote: »

The weather forecast would have told them it was foggy, so why fly into it ?

I wouldn't claim to be an expert on the intricacies of these matters, but I'd guess that as it is a scheduled stop, they would make it if the airport is open. Also quite possible that the aircraft had not fuelled for the journey all the way to London from Muscat, as it would mean making a landing at AUH with a heavy fuel load.

richardw

Let's have a look at Recital 14 of EU regulation EC261/2004

(14) As under the Montreal Convention, obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier.

They could have avoided the fog by not flying into it.

SW17

richardw wrote: »

Let's have a look at Recital 14 of EU regulation EC261/2004

(14) As under the Montreal Convention, obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier.

They could have avoided the fog by not flying into it.

Have there been a lot of successful EC261 claims on that basis with regard to weather? Genuine question, I don't follow these things closely.

The airport was operational for them to land, so presumably you'd have to prove they knew before taking off from Muscat that they would not be able to take off again from Abu Dhabi. The aircraft would not have been fuelled to go all the way to London.

richardw

I don't know of a specific case, but the 'avoid with reasonable measures' argument is probably easily advanced and airlines may have given up before a claim goes to a small claims hearing.

Airlines do check weather reports for their proposed routing over the next several hours, so a risk assessment could have been made and fuelling done at the origin.

hollydays

Helensmelons4 wrote: »

I have just recently booked a holiday. teletext holidays offered the cheapest prices for holidays. On phoning teletext holidays most holidays advertised required at least 2 flight changes, one took 14hours from Newcastle too Tenerife!!!!

Search the boards for posts about teletext these days :eek: