Wizz Air citing extraordinary circumstances for cancelled flight

bagand96

Westin said:

Thanks. The flight crew had announced that the slot was missed due to their ground staff error and subsequent issues identifying the luggage to be off boarded. The Wizz Air email quoted that 'An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.' But all reasonable measures (to not board passengers who shouldn't have been there) hadn't been taken. If they had, they wouldn't have missed the original take off slot(?)

Possibly. Possibly not. I guess WizzAir feel otherwise and seem to have rejected your claim on that basis.

Often the flight deck crew can send a ‘ready message’ to try and improve an ATC slot. This done once everyone is on board, bags loaded, doors closed.  They however need to make a judgement call to whether this is likely vs. the legal obligation on maximum safe operating hours for the crew.

I am sorry to hear that you had such a horrid end to your holiday.  No one likes these events but sadly with congested airspace, busy flights, airports at capacity, these things just happen.  Compensation is not always due, but welfare during delays or cancellation is.

Agree with @Westin.  It can be difficult to decipher one reason for a delay when there are multiple factors.  Especially with ATC slots being such a huge problem across Europe in peak summer.  I can see the OP argument that if the ground handling error hadn't happened then the flight may have made it's original slot and departed.  Conversely, Wizzair will argue that even with the ground handling error, their flight could have departed within legal crew duty hours, however the slot then meant that wasn't possible so they had to cancel.

As others have said in any event Wizzair are responsible for the care elements of EC261 so you should claim for alternative flight costs and hotel accommodation.  Make sure you are claiming for expenses and not compensation and provide receipts.

If you still wish to pursue EC261 compensation then you could proceed to ODR, or court action.  If it was the UK Wizzair operation (W9 flight number) then this would be fairly simple as you could open a MCOL case.  I've no idea if ODR or a Judge would side with you or Wizzair, it's not a simple case.

Stranded4

So I got the determination from the online dispute resolution for UK passengers (which CAA directed me to), delighted to say that they ruled in my favour. Wizz Air now have 30 days to provide evidence that they have paid me and the rest of our group the £350 fixed compensation. Fingers crossed and thanks to @UncleThomasCobley for suggesting a call to CAA!

ThorOdinson

Hoenir said:

Stranded4 said:

Westin said:

Stranded4 said:

We managed to get booked on an alternative flight 32 hours later, but that meant an overnight hotel stay, food, transport back to the airport, parking overstay charges at the other end, etc. But it seems to me that the events leading to the flight missing the take-off slot were absolutely avoidable, and they took the decision to cancel because they couldn't improve their new take-off slot. I'm sure everyone on the flight would have preferred another 90 minute delay than the upheaval we were faced with, i.e. a frantic search for an alternative flight, hotel, all the extra expense and inconvenience. All with a toddler and 81 year old to care for.

Unfortunately that was unlikely to work for the operating flight crew. They would have operated out from LGW and with a round trip to/from Cyprus, the crew would be tight on their legal operating hours. An extended ground delay and ATC slot likely pushed them in to having to cancel that service and the crew to ‘rest’ for 12+ hours.  There is a buffer on operating hours but it sounds like that was exceeded with the lengthy ATC hold up.

As @Voyager2002 says, you are entitled to the care elements but it sounds like no extra compensation given the delay reason.

But all reasonable measures (to not board passengers who shouldn't have been there) hadn't been taken. If they had, they wouldn't have missed the original take off slot(?)

The ground staff are most likely not the airlines employees but an outsourced service provider. 

The staff responsible for letting the wrong person in will have been working for the airline.

michael1234

Stranded4 said:

So I got the determination from the online dispute resolution for UK passengers (which CAA directed me to), delighted to say that they ruled in my favour. Wizz Air now have 30 days to provide evidence that they have paid me and the rest of our group the £350 fixed compensation. Fingers crossed and thanks to @UncleThomasCobley for suggesting a call to CAA!

Really pleased about that particularly as you were given unhelpful and incorrect information here to start with.