Originally Posted by
Rwy in Sight
Flight International mentioned back when 261 was introduced that the Regulation was adopted because an EU bureaucrat was frustrated to being dump on his Sunday evening flights to Brussels as overbooked.
As I heard it, it was a eurocrat who showed up at the gate after the doors were closed and was refused boarding. Wouldn't even qualify for compensation under the regulation, but he wanted the airlines to be punished.
The compensation amounts for cancellation were set at PUNITIVE levels to stop airlines cancelling flights for economic reasons. (Although a subsequent study after implementation showed no significant changes in rate of cancellations)
The regulation did not include compensation amounts for delays because of the fear of unforeseen consequences (as suggested above). However the ECJ decided that this wasn't fair because some delays could be as bad as a cancellation so they ruled that the punitive levels would also apply to almost all delays of more than 3 hours.