KLM - Delayed departure, missed connection, compensation refused

wine_time

On 8th December 2023 I had a flight booked with KLM from Humberside to Berlin with a connection via Amsterdam. This flight was due to depart Humberside at 0615 hours with the connecting flight from Amsterdam departing at 0945.
At 2219 hours on 7th December I received a message from KLM stating "Your flight KL1482 is delayed. Our apologies. Expected new time is 0745 on 08/12 "
(I strongly suspect that this delay was the result of the the plane arriving late into Humberside on 7th and pilot hours being the problem.)
The flight did take off around 0745 but arrived too late into Amsterdam to make the connection.
KLM then rescheduled our flight from Amsterdam to Berlin for 1420 hours meaning we arrived in Berlin approx 4 1/2 hours late.
I was unaware of delay compensation until recently but have since submitted a claim to KLM who have now rejected the claim stating the first flight was "delayed due to weather conditions".
I personally cannot accept that they can claim this as an extraordinary circumstance when they notified me of the delay just less than 8 hours before we were due to take off.

Unbelievably our return flight on the 11th December 2023 from Berlin to Amsterdam was also delayed resulting in a missed connection from Amsterdam to Humberside.
This also resulted in us arriving back over 4 hours late.
I submitted a claim for this one which was also rejected "due to air traffic control restrictions".
I know that this delay will be harder to rebut.

Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations regarding either of these flight delays.
Many thanks.

eskbanker

If the flight into Humberside on the 7th was delayed due to significant weather issues, and this in turn affected crew hours for the return leg, then I suspect that this would be seen as extraordinary circumstances, in terms of whether it would be deemed reasonable to expect KLM to have spare crew available at an outstation.

As you say, the ATC restrictions on the other journey are hard to challenge, but if you were to pursue this to ADR or court then the airline would be required to provide documentary evidence.