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Cancelled flight and EU air travel regulations

  • 05-06-2016 9:21am
    #1
    Bob24
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,905 ✭✭✭✭


    I was meant to travel to France last Thursday morning but Ryanair cancelled the flight 14h before the departure time as French air traffic controllers had announced a strike for the next day.

    Ryanair offered to rebook the outbound flight on a different day but it was of little use as they don't have daily service to that airport (Euroairport) and my stay would have been very short as the return flight was not exchangeable. So I took their offer of giving me a full refund.

    In the end, French ATC called-off their strike, and to my knowledge all Aer Lingus service to France operated on schedule that day.

    I can see here that EU regulations require a 250 euros compensation for cancelled flights. There is an exception for "extraordinary circumstance" and I am sure Ryanair would use this to decline compensation when there is a strike.

    But my question is: since the announced strike which lead them to cancel the flight never actually materialised, am I entitled for compensation? And does the fact that I already accepted a refund for my booking (after the cancellation announcement but before the scheduled departure time) affect that right?


Comments

  • #2
    RoYoBo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 856 ✭✭✭RoYoBo


    Bob24 wrote: »
    I was meant to travel to France last Thursday morning but Ryanair cancelled the flight 14h before the departure time as French air traffic controllers had announced a strike for the next day.

    Ryanair offered to rebook the outbound flight on a different day but it was of little use as they don't have daily service to that airport (Euroairport) and my stay would have been very short as the return flight was not exchangeable. So I took their offer of giving me a full refund.

    In the end, French ATC called-off their strike, and to my knowledge all Aer Lingus service to France operated on schedule that day.

    I can see here that EU regulations require a 250 euros compensation for cancelled flights. There is an exception for "extraordinary circumstance" and I am sure Ryanair would use this to decline compensation when there is a strike.

    But my question is: since the announced strike which lead them to cancel the flight never actually materialised, am I entitled for compensation? And does the fact that I already accepted a refund for my booking (after the cancellation announcement but before the scheduled departure time) affect that right?

    I thought the Thursday strike actually did take place and it was only the following 2 originally planned stoppage days that flights went ahead as normal? I know that my flight from Spain on Thursday was re-routed to avoid French air space and there were many delays and announcements about the strike at the airport.


  • #3
    Bob24
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,905 ✭✭✭✭Bob24


    RoYoBo wrote: »
    I thought the Thursday strike actually did take place and it was only the following 2 originally planned stoppage days that flights went ahead as normal? I know that my flight from Spain on Thursday was re-routed to avoid French air space and there were many delays and announcements about the strike at the airport.

    I am not sure whether I am missing some information, but I definitely read in French media the strik was called off.

    I can also see Aer Lingus did fly to CDG around the same time my flight was scheduled: https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/EIN520/history/20160602/0550Z/EIDW/LFPG

    And they did fly to Geneva that day (very similar route Ryanair would have used to go to Euroairport which is just a bit more north): https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/EIN684/history/20160602/1115Z/EIDW/LSGG


  • #4
    RoYoBo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 856 ✭✭✭RoYoBo


    As I understand it, the strike went ahead for Thursday but Friday and Saturday strikes due to take place were called off in the end. It appears that only a very limited number of flights were able to traverse French air space on Thursday and the government dictated this for safety reasons.

    I spoke to a few people at the airport who were forced to hang about and wait to see what would happen but their scheduled flights were definitely cancelled. This included a number of Ryanair flights, so I imagine if your flight was cancelled in advance it didn't leave at all on Thursday.


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