Originally Posted by
atakacs
Given the current crisis, I'd guess one can reasonably say that 5.3
Quote:
An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
is indeed relevant. As such cancellations would not anymore give a right to any compensation. But what about refunds (which are, for obvious reasons, made difficult by many carriers) ? I don't see a "force majeure" clause in the regulation.
Thoughts ?
Much of EU261 deals with
compensation because airlines had for far too long been dealing with passengers in a somewhat cavalier fashion.
These Covid 19 cancellation issues are almost exclusively about
reimbursement of the ticket cost following the cancellation of the flight. Do airlines expect to cancel the flight and keep the money? Maybe in their minds that seems a reasonable thing to do, but the law thinks and says otherwise.
Compensation would involve giving back more than the cost of the ticket, which I don't expect, but wouldn't object to.