EU261 where multiple reasons are to blame

[Segedunum]

Hi all,

I'm currently stuck at Newcastle Airport, originally due to Storm Bert and now seemingly due to Ryanair shuffling things around for their own convenience.

I'm travelling on FR450 to Kraków (scheduled 0905) but the airport became rather snowed under and the inbound aircraft was stuck in Dublin.

It arrived at 1115 but Ryanair then decided it'd go to Lanzarote instead, and we'd get a Polish aircraft which won't be departing until at least 1615. This has meant that the flight from Kraków isn't particularly delayed but causes a colossal one in the other direction.

The initial delay cause was the snow but its been more than doubled by what is essentially an operational convenience. They've done similar to an Alicante flight. Now, I know they'll push back on this and insist that the whole lot was caused by the poor weather, but is EU261 a realistic possibility here? The only compensation offered has been a £3 refreshment voucher which for the delay length isn't exactly going to do a lot.

 

[Watershed]

In terms of refreshments, buy whatever you feel is reasonable and then send in an expenses claim afterwards. They are very unlikely to deny the claim in my experience, and frankly there is no way they could claim £3 is a reasonable amount to keep yourself fed and watered during a 7 hour delay, particularly given usurious airport prices.

As for the compensation, you're right - you will almost certainly be in for a fight. You do have the option of taking the case to AviationADR, but in my experience it is pot luck as to whether you get a "yes man" Rail Ombudsman-style case assessor who simply takes the airline's defence at face value, or whether you get an assessor who looks at the matter with an open mind.

The key point to remember is that you normally need at least 3 hours of "countable" delay minutes to get compensation (i.e. something that was either Ryanair's fault or within their area of responsibility). However, you can also get compensation if there are less than 3 hours of "countable" delay minutes, but Ryanair didn't take all reasonable measures to mitigate the delay.

The latter "all reasonable measures" provision is the one that recently won me an EU261 claim against Ryanair, so it's not to be sniffed at. Reasonable measures could include allocating other aircraft, utilising spares, or rebooking you on alternative airlines. Although strictly speaking the duty to demonstrate "all reasonable measures" falls on the airline, if you can find "incriminating" evidence against them, this will certainly help you.