Originally Posted by
BEagle
So waiting for ba to sort out claims through fistfuls of receipts won't be an adequate response. The CAA has clearly decided that ba's passenger delays were not caused by 'extraordinary circumstances'; the EU law on flight compensation uses the term 'extraordinary circumstances' to refer to situations where delays or cancellations have been caused by things that are not the responsibility of the airline, whereas the airline clearly is responsible for its IT systems having sufficient resilience and redundancy.
Thus full compensation under EU law must be paid.
I'm afraid I don't agree with the CAA saying that. The CAA is saying that passengers are "passengers affected ... are protected under EU law", and this law provides for both a duty of care (in all circumstances) and compensation (in some circumstances). So the EU law will protect all passengers in case of travel disruption but may only require a duty of care.
The CAA is being reassuring to passengers and warning BA (and other airlines who may be watching) not to neglect the duty of care, rather than making any comments on compensation.
The duty of care does include getting passengers on their way as quickly as reasonable possible, for example - not excluding booking onto other carriers, which is often a sticking point for tight-fisted airlines. This may be one of the things the CAA is trying to remind the airlines of, again without any reference to compensation.