Right to Flight Disruption Report

[mikes1155]

Hi all

I have unsuccessfully searched for an answer to this issue, which I'd be grateful for some advice on please.

A flight which my family and I were scheduled to fly on was cancelled during a pre-known 48 hour period of French ATC industrial action. Our flight was then cancelled at the eleventh-hour and, although the airline informed us that it was due to the industrial action, I have a feeling that this was just a convenient excuse to avoid compensation claims.

So, I wrote to the airline's customer services and, as per the spirit of Regulation 261/2004, asked for the proof that the cancellation was beyond their control and thus qualified as 'extraordinary circumstances.' This department informed me that I would need to send its legal department £10 to obtain the flight disruption report. This seemed to me to be a good way to get what I was seeking - substantiation of what I was being told - and sending me a flight disruption report would bring a close to the matter. So, I sent them £10 along with my request for the report.

The legal department wrote back to me and said that I was not entitled to this information. I wrote back to them and said that, if this was the case, then I only had their word to go on and, as a result, they had not provided the proof that 261/2004 required. Needless to say, the situation was now at an impasse.

So, I referred this matter to the CAA. They promised to look into it and, last week, wrote back to me to say that from the information that it had been given by the airline, the delay fell under the scope of extraordinary circumstances. They further said that I had no right of appeal and that they would not enter into any further correspondence about this matter.

So, now I'm really smelling a rat; surely, if the regulation requires the carrier to demonstrate that they took all reasonable steps to avoid the cancellation and have no case to answer, don't they have to demonstrate that to me? Do I not have a right to some evidence of that?

Any thoughts on what should be my next move with this please? It's been nearly a year now and we lost 3 valuable days of our break because of this situation.

Thank you for any thoughts on this.

[HeartyMeatballs]

Although the strike was pre planned it could have been that the flight was given an extreme slot. Flights are proactively cancelled in advanced but flights which still take place are still at risk of getting a slot. This has happened to me several times before where we are sat, pax at the gate, setting up for the next flight and then a slot will come though.

If the airline has lots of cancellations then they will have lots of spare crew on standby so I can't see it being a crewing issue if you're at a crew base. Same could be said for the aircraft too - there will be some spares so if a plane does go tech then there's usually a back up. Outside of crewing or craft I can't think of why else a flit would be cancelled unless the airline had no choice - such as strike.

Airlines are vastly complex organisations and it may not seem immediately clear as to why this happened but cancelling a flight is always the absolutely last resort. If the CAA were satisfied then I'd say you're unlikely to get any further unfortunately. However it is odd at the CAA can see the information but the airline can't show you.

[mikes1155]

Many thanks for your reply, which is helpful. I understand that there are many factors which must impact operationally upon an airline - particularly during a period of industrial action - but what I can't understand is why the airline feels that it cannot provide, and that I have no entitlement to, the information that would put an end to the matter; particularly when its own customer services department was of the opinion that me sending them £10 would provide for this. That's what made me feel that perhaps there was something being concealed.

I take your point about there being plenty of crew and aircraft available at that time, and so it would have been unlikely to have been cancelled because of shortages there. The flight was with easyJet from Bristol to Faro, and that airline does have quite a strong presence there. BRS-FAO is a route which we have flown many times per year for the past decade, and we have on numerous occasions had delays because of French ATC action. However, this has previously been circumvented (literally) by the pilot flying 'around' the usual flightpath.

Oh well, as you say, there is probably nothing more that I can do, but again I appreciate your response. I guess that the answer to my original question is - no, a passenger has no entitlement to a flight disruption report.

[ExXB]

Mike,
There is nothing in the regulation that requires an airline to provide 'proof' to a passenger.

However in dealing with the National Enforcement Bodies they would have to satisfy said NEBs that the cancellation fell within the terms of the Regulation. They can't simply lie to the NEBs.

The report you want to see likely contains proprietary and private information including, for example, crew names and operational information. I can understand why an airline would not want said documents in the public domain. I can't say for certain what they contain as I have never seen one myself.

I'm sorry, you are not going to get your pound of flesh. Why not sue the French ATC as it was, after all, their fault not the airline's.

[mikes1155]

Hi ExXB

Many thanks for taking the time to reply on this, and I hear what you say about the report being likely to contain operational information. It wasn't so much a pound of flesh that I was after - more, some corroboration that the reasons for the eleventh-hour cancellation of so many passengers' flight, and curtailment of our holiday by three days, was for the reasons given. After all, one doesn't have to look too far to see that airlines don't always play fair.

Ah well, "C'est la vie!" as French ATC would probably say.... :ugh:

[Porky Speedpig]

Mike,
I agree with the responses above. Having been involved in many such cases you would only normally get access to such documents as part of disclosure of evidence after you had initiated action in the small claims court and paid your court fee etc.
If you travelled with a large airline I can say from experience they are extremely unlikely to have been "on the fiddle" here - they have far too much to do once the French ATC declare industrial action to get involved in subtleties.
I see that Ryanair have launched a petition to try and outlaw such actions in the future which has little chance of success but at least it serves to shine a light on the saga.
Hope that is reassuring!

[mikes1155]

Thanks very much for your response - I appreciate all of the comments that have been made on this point. Very helpful!

[S.o.S.]

Thanks for joining mikes1155, your question produced some good answers. I hope you stay 'in the cabin'.

[111KAB]

Apologies for late post however this link may provide you with the background in relation to requests made to the CAA in respect of a similar question.


https://www.caa.co.uk/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=4294970536