When does a delay become a cancellation?

[ExXB]

You may have missed my point.

WHBM and The SSK
You may have missed the point I was trying to make. That was that we, out here in internet land, simply do not have all of the facts. Geoff, the victim doesn't have all of the facts to determine if, or if not, his situation qualifies for Compensation under the Regulation. The only one with all the facts is the airline.

Remember the Regulation is very poorly drafted (a direct quote from the German High Court) and it does not define many of it's terms.

An example. A network airline has an A321 to operate an evening European Flight. Just before departure a technical fault is found with the aircraft which can not be fixed before the airport closes. By chance an A319 is available and the original crew is qualified on this sister aircraft. The challenge? An A321 has 180 seats while a A319 has 124. Let's assume you had a full load of 180 passengers booked.

You are the airlines manager on site. What would you do? Put on the A319 and bump 46 passengers or simply delay the flight to the next morning? The answer may surprise you.

In the first case you deny boarding to 56 passengers and the Regulation does not provide for a extraordinary circumstances defence in such a case. Cost EUR600 x 56 = EUR33,600. These passengers also entitled to a re-routing on next available flight or a refund.

In the second case, you need to cover passengers hotel and meals but not compensation (which never applies in cases of delays). Let's be generous and assume a cost of EUR100. EUR100 x 180 = 18,000.

There is a third choice, simply cancel the flight. Passengers likely not entitled to compensation only a choice between refund or re-routing on next available flight. Those that choose re route entitled to hotac and meal, but no other direct expenses.

Now obviously a reputable airline is hopefully going to decide on the best choice for it's customer - option 1. Although 56 passengers are inconvenienced that's a lot less than 180. But not all airlines see it the same way.

This is one example of how through poor drafting this Regulation is not in the interest of the passenger, I've got others if you are interested.