Air Baltic flight cancellation

cmjfletcher

Hi,

Hoping for some advice on the value of compensation we're due. 

Our flight from Gatwick to Riga (depart 09.25, arrive 14.05) was cancelled. We received an email from Air Baltic informing us we were rebooked on flights from Heathrow to Hamburg and then Hamburg to Riga. The Hamburg to Riga flight was scheduled to arrive in Riga at 17.00, but according to the Air Batlic website and Flightaware it arrived at 17.05. Exactly 3 hours after our scheduled arrival.

We declined the connecting flights as they departed from Heathrow, when our car was due to be parked at Gatwick, ready for us upon the return flight. 

We phoned Air Baltic and were rebooked on a later direct flight from Gatwick, departing at 17.25, arriving at 22.05 (actual arrival was 22.22).

As both the flights we were offered and the flights we accepted were 3 or more hours later I believe were due compensation of 400 EUR per passenger. However after claiming via the Air Baltic website, they are only offering 200 EUR per passenger as they claim the alternative flights we were offered arrived within 3 hours, when the actual arrival time according to their website was exactly 3 hours late.

If we were to take this case to an independent adjudicator, should we expect them to find in our favour and provide compensation of 400 EUR per passenger?

Thanks for any advice.

eskbanker

The later flight you actually took isn't relevant if you declined one that was due to arrive within three hours of the original scheduled arrival time, but the key measure for the indirect flights is the time when the doors were first opened, rather than the landing time, so if the flight landed exactly three hours after your scheduled ETA then it would obviously have been more than three hours to first door open.

However, in any case, the regulations do support your view that exactly three hours triggers the higher figure:

When passengers are offered re-routing to their final destination on an alternative flight pursuant to Article 8, the arrival time of which does not exceed the scheduled arrival time of the flight originally booked [...] by three hours, in respect of all flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres [...], the operating air carrier may reduce the compensation provided for in paragraph 1 by 50 %.