Exceptional circumstances

decision

I took EasyJet to court for compensation over a flight cancellation from Faro on 16th June 2021. The cancellation was caused by " Exceptional circumstances " due to Covid according to the Airline. I initially wrote direct to EasyJet and then to Aviation ADR who found in favour of the Airline. Not satisfied with this outcome I took them to the small claims court.  After many days exploring the many court cases involving "Exceptional Circumstances " and reading the many articles surrounding the traffic light system set in place by the UK government which played a key role in the cancellation I armed myself with a 3.2 A4 page argument with supporting evidence that was placed before the court. The Judge stated that the burden of proof was not shown by the Barrister for EasyJet and that Covid we'd all been living with for around 18 months could not be considered as reason. There were important details, too many to list here, that I presented in the case and apart from the satisfaction in winning were the positive words of the opposing Barrister in relation to my argument. Importantly, it should be noted that the same "Extraordinary Circumstances" is still being stated by the Airline for the same flight compensation claims subsequently made from the date of my court case.

eskbanker

decision said:

There were important details, too many to list here, that I presented in the case...

Worth going somewhat further than you have though IMHO - what specifically were the circumstances of the cancellation, what actual reason (beyond generic Covid) did EasyJet cite (that you say they're still using today) and what were the main counter-arguments deployed to defeat their case?

There is obviously a huge amount of discussion and case law about exactly what constitutes extraordinary circumstances, in the context of this being a fairly vague and inclusive term in the regulations, so it would be informative to understand significantly more detail than you've shared thus far....