The can of worms just got a whole lot more wriggly.
• Catering truck makes contact with wing trailing edge.
• Flight delayed while inspections take place.
• Was the incident ‘avoidable’? Well, yes.
• 450 passengers entitled to €600 compensation. That’s €270,000
• Similar delay for the 450 passengers booked on the return trip. That’s another €270.000
• The airline coughs up €540,000 without demur (really? Does it?) then asks the catering company for the money. Catering company can’t/won’t pay.
• The legal profession moves in and the bills just keep getting bigger.
Or
• A foul-up which can be attributed to the airport causes a half hour delay.
• ATC, which is suffering restrictions because of some system inadequacy can’t give a slot for two hours.
• Because of this the crew go out of hours and a replacement has to be found, flight leaves 4h late.
• Scenario as above, total liability upwards of half a million €.
• Who is to ‘blame’? The airport, for the initial short delay? ATC, because they can’t come up with a new slot immediately? The airline, for its rostering policy? Or if all three, in what proportions?
• Time to call in the lawyers again …
Repeat, on a virtually daily basis, somewhere in Europe