EU 261/ 2004 "Doesn't (seem) to apply to Ryanair"
@ silverhawk
" 'technical fault' absolves the airline of liability, so no compensation to pax.
Crew shortage is a failing in the airline infrastructure and in this case does attract compensation ..."
Not true.
It is for the airline to PROVE that any technical problem was unavoidable and could not have reasonably been foreseen.
It is not acceptable for Ryanair (or any other airline) to claim that "all our planes and crew were fully committed; ergo we couldn't provide a relief plane and crew in the case of a major mechanical failure" as any well managed airline must, like a well managed bus service for example, anticipate unexpected problems and build in some reasonable degree of spare provision.
The difference is of course that the obligation for airline is set out implicitly in the above regulation (with clear penalties for failure to provide the service contracted by the passenger specified there too) but this is not the case for bus services.
Might it possibly be because of Ryanair's outrageous use of one of its aircraft by the then EU Transport Commissioner at the time of the last Irish EU referendum that the enforcement of these regulations against Ryanair remains more than somewhat limited ?