Airline claims air traffic control caused delay/cancellation - how do I check?

David_Boring

We were very recently waiting to board a plane for a booked holiday when we were informed the flight was cancelled. They (Easyjet) were unable to offer an alternative and therefore are (haven't yet) refunding the holiday cost. However we are unable to claim compensation for other costs (petrol, parking, overall hassle, etc) as they are saying it was due to air traffic control. My point is, how do I know that's the truth? Surely they could say that every time to get out of paying compensation? Is there any way of checking? Any responses kindly appreciated

bagand96

There's no open database of Air Traffic Control delays that the public can go and check. 

You have to rely on the information given to you by the airline at the time. In your situation it could be that the delay meant the crew would have been out of operating hours so the flight was cancelled or similar. You could check flight history on sites like FlightRadar24 and Flightera, they won't give an answer but may show the aircraft history and help build a picture. 

You can go back to easyJet and ask for further explanation, and if you still don't believe them you can take it to ADR or Small Claims Court - there would be a burden of proof on the airline in either of those processes.

Your travel insurance may cover you for some losses depending on the level of cover. 

eskbanker

David_Boring said:

We were very recently waiting to board a plane for a booked holiday when we were informed the flight was cancelled. They (Easyjet) were unable to offer an alternative and therefore are (haven't yet) refunding the holiday cost.

Just to be clear, are you referring to a package holiday booked via Easyjet Holidays?

David_Boring

eskbanker said:

David_Boring said:

We were very recently waiting to board a plane for a booked holiday when we were informed the flight was cancelled. They (Easyjet) were unable to offer an alternative and therefore are (haven't yet) refunding the holiday cost.

Just to be clear, are you referring to a package holiday booked via Easyjet Holidays?

Yes it was an Easyjets holiday - flights, transfers, hotel

David_Boring

bagand96 said:

There's no open database of Air Traffic Control delays that the public can go and check. 

You have to rely on the information given to you by the airline at the time. In your situation it could be that the delay meant the crew would have been out of operating hours so the flight was cancelled or similar. You could check flight history on sites like FlightRadar24 and Flightera, they won't give an answer but may show the aircraft history and help build a picture. 

You can go back to easyJet and ask for further explanation, and if you still don't believe them you can take it to ADR or Small Claims Court - there would be a burden of proof on the airline in either of those processes.

Your travel insurance may cover you for some losses depending on the level of cover. 

Thanks for the info. I haven't pursued travel insurance yet as I was waiting for Easyjets response. We've still not had any contact from them since informing us that the holiday was cancelled on Friday and no refund

eskbanker

David_Boring said:

eskbanker said:

David_Boring said:

We were very recently waiting to board a plane for a booked holiday when we were informed the flight was cancelled. They (Easyjet) were unable to offer an alternative and therefore are (haven't yet) refunding the holiday cost.

Just to be clear, are you referring to a package holiday booked via Easyjet Holidays?

Yes it was an Easyjets holiday - flights, transfers, hotel

Failure to perform the package itself introduces obligations on the package provider, under the Package Travel Regulations, so worth familiarising yourself with these, especially if you wish to construct a case for reimbursement of ancillary costs:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/634/regulation/16

Unlike flight cancellations, there isn't the equivalent fixed tariff compensation regime for package providers, who can also rely on "unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances" to deny anything beyond the full refund, but I'd argue that cancelling an entire holiday because of air traffic control restrictions is excessive.

David_Boring

This is what easyJet said, "Regarding your compensation claim, to further explain what happened on the day; in the previous sector, air traffic control restrictions substantially regulated the airspace, which resulted in long delays to flights as aircraft waited for airspace ‘slots’ to operate, sometimes for several hours. Ultimately, in the case of this flight, the delays pushed our crew into their maximum legal operating hours. There are strict industry-wide rules on the number of hours our crew are allowed to work. To protect the safety of our customers and crew, these hours cannot be exceeded. We do take reasonable measures to avoid delays and cancellations to our flights by having replacement crews and spare aircraft available in our network. In the circumstances," these options were not possible as the cancellation of your flight was a direct result of air traffic control restrictions."

It seems to me that although air traffic control delayed the flight the decision was essentially taken by easyJet staff that the flight crew couldn't operate due to potentially going over their working hours. This would explain why the flight was cancelled whilst boarding. It seems there was a window of opportunity from air traffic control for the flight to take place but easyJet could not provide crew either initial or a backup. And as they were unable to provide alternative flights or a holiday, the package was cancelled by easyJet. Air traffic control had no influence on them being unable to provide an alternative. Is this how it reads?

eskbanker

Just to be clear, it's likely that EasyJet the airline will be able to justify their stance that compensation isn't payable under the UK261 flight delay/cancellation regulations, unless you can convince them/ADR/court that they should have had spare crews at the location and time concerned - when crews reach the end of their working hours, there isn't much discretion to extend these, given the safety implications they refer to.

However, as above, EasyJet Holidays, the package provider, has different obligations under the Package Travel Regulations - the actual underlying root cause of the flight cancellation doesn't really matter here and you'd be seeking reimbursement of the resultant losses arising from their cancellation of the package itself.

It could be argued that both parties were responsible for arranging alternative flights to allow the trip to continue - do you believe that would/should have been realistic in the circumstances?

David_Boring

eskbanker said:

Just to be clear, it's likely that EasyJet the airline will be able to justify their stance that compensation isn't payable under the UK261 flight delay/cancellation regulations, unless you can convince them/ADR/court that they should have had spare crews at the location and time concerned - when crews reach the end of their working hours, there isn't much discretion to extend these, given the safety implications they refer to.

However, as above, EasyJet Holidays, the package provider, has different obligations under the Package Travel Regulations - the actual underlying root cause of the flight cancellation doesn't really matter here and you'd be seeking reimbursement of the resultant losses arising from their cancellation of the package itself.

It could be argued that both parties were responsible for arranging alternative flights to allow the trip to continue - do you believe that would/should have been realistic in the circumstances?

Thanks for your help with this. Unfortunately EasyJet Holidays don't want to know either. They've refunded the holiday cost albeit almost two weeks after the cancellation and believe that's where their responsibility ends. I did refer to the Package Travel Regulations but they ignored this. Is there a specific piece of legislation I can quote to them? It just doesn't feel right that as a family we did everything asked and have somehow ended up approximately £300 out of pocket through no fault of our own

Westin

Did you find anything in the PTR's that suggest the tour operator has to refund more than the cost of the cancelled holiday? Whilst frustrating for you, I don't believe EasyJet Holidays have an obligation to refund you the costs of your 'petrol, parking, overall hassle, etc'.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81855817#Comment_81855817

Unlike the UK261 flight delay/cancellation regulations, there's no specified compensation regime for packages, but I was pondering whether regulations 15 and 16 of the PTRs could support a reimbursement claim if the case can be made that total cancellation was unnecessary, i.e. if there were alternative flights that should have been provided.

Regulation 15 requires the package provider to remedy any lack of conformity, and failure to do so opens up the potential for the traveller to seek compensation for damages via regulation 16 - I haven't seen much mention on here of such claims being made or settled, so it may just be hypothetical or applicable only to other scenarios, e.g. where the traveller rebooked alternative flights at their own cost, but perhaps worth a try?