Cancellation or Re-schedule
Geoff,
The reason no one has answered the question about cancellations, is because it is a very complex answer.
Generally a flight is cancelled, when it no longer operates as originally planned. However, there are several exceptions to this:-
1) Re-route. Your flight might need to operate from or to a different airport due to several reasons. Mostly not being within the airlines control.
2) Diversion. Your flight might need to deviate from its planned destination due to several different reasons. Mostly not being within the airlines control.
3) Delay. I don't think I need to explain this one!!!
A Re-schedule is wording that is often used loosely within the industry. This could apply to a Delay, Re-route or Schedule change.
You're getting too engrossed in the wording, which I think was wrongly used by the EZY customer service department.
Just because your flight was re-scheduled, and there was a change in flight number, it doesn't mean your planned flight was cancelled. What you really need to find out, and you won't be able to because of commercial confidentiality; was there an extra aircraft operating your flight out of LTN just for the passengers who were due to fly out of EMA the previous evening - OR - were you re-booked onto an existing EZY flight that was operating anyway. The only people who will have this data are the airline and it will be passed over when requested from the authorities. The change in flight numbers is a red herring, this is only so the airline can keep track of internal and flight planning data. If your flight was an additional sector that was added due to the problems experienced the previous evening, then EZY could argue that your flight was delayed and re-routed. All perfectly legal.
The technical problem will be EZY's defence for the hefty delay, and rightly so, safety should come first. Although all aircraft are maintained according to and beyond the CAA's regulations, components often breakdown. Any reputable airline will be able to prove a technical issue is an exceptional circumstance, assuming their maintenance is acceptable in the first instance. Crewing is the next issue. A lot of people state that EZY are responsible for making sure they have enough standby crew to recover the flight, but as an above post states, what if an exceptional amount of standby crews were used that day? If EZY can prove (and they can) that they only need 2 standby crews(fictional figure) to cover the rotations out of EMA, and they use both of those crew due to disruption that day, then not having enough crew for further disruption will be classed as an exceptional circumstance. Again all this information will be passed to the authority by EZY.
These EU rules and regulations were written to stop airlines:-
a) Overbooking.
b) Cancelling flights for commercial reasons.
c) Protecting passengers rights during prolonged delays.
They were not written to try to bankrupt as many airlines as possible, the current economic climate is making a good headway into that....
I wish you every success with your claim; however I wish EZY even more success with their counter claim. You were fairly well looked after when the airline could not operate the flight you boarded, and you arrived in your destination the following morning. You received everything you were entitled to. You probably were not put up in a 5* hotel, but did you really expect that? I don't expect you to say, but I would love to know what you paid for your tickets? I would imagine that quite a few of your fellow passengers who were put up in a hotel for the night paid less than £50 for the flight in total. EZY have just paid out for the bus transportation to LTN, hotel rooms and food for how many people? Probably equates to over £100 a head. As well as getting you to your destination as safely as they possibly could, and now you want to fine them as well! With the retired proportion of the population now increasing steadily, is this really what we have to look forward to?
I should state that I have no relation to EZY, never have and never will, actually I can't stand them. I always travel full service; however that might be difficult this summer without the cabin crew!!!!
Sorry Geoff, nothing directly aimed at you, just think the whole “let's get cash back because we didn't get there on-time” is nonsense. It'll force airlines to either fly unsafely or plead Chapter 11 (forget that we don't have that privilege!). Saying that when I retire and I've had enough of airline disruption, I'll probably be quite happy to pester airlines until I get 500Euros in my pocket so I can buy another 10 tickets with them, only to do the same again, and again, and...........