Air Passengers Triumph In Cancelled Flight Compensation Claim

If you are an air passenger whose flight has been cancelled or significantly delayed you have a legal right to compensation (and many of us will have been dealing with this issue in the last year) – unless the airline can show that the delay or cancellation was caused by 'extraordinary circumstances'. The Court of Appeal analysed the meaning of that phrase in an important test case.

A flight from Milan to London was cancelled after the captain fell ill. Passengers were put on an alternative flight, but their arrival in London was delayed by about two and a half hours. Two of the passengers claimed compensation from the airline under Regulation (EC) 261/2004.

Their claims were, however, rejected on the basis that the captain's illness amounted to an extraordinary circumstance within the meaning of the Regulation. The airline successfully relied on the fact that the captain was off duty when he fell ill and was certified as unfit to fly by a medical consultancy.