Contesting EU 261 claim decision with Ryanair

Hi there,

Any advice much appreciated here.

I experienced a very long delay on a flight from Warsaw Modlin airport to Leeds Bradford Airport LBA on Boxing Day. I got on the flight at least 6 hours behind schedule and landed at another airport (East Midlands) because LBA was closed at 4am, when we landed.

From what I ascertained from staff during my time in Warsaw airport, the delay was caused by bad weather at LBA, meaning that the LBA-to-Warsaw plane (that we were meant to catch home on it’s return to the UK) could not take off. I believe customers and staff were taken by coach to Liverpool airport, where the flight left long after the initial flight was scheduled. I then went back to the UK (to wrong airport 6 hours after my scheduled arrival in LBA).

I made a claim for compensation after receiving an email from Ryanair prompting me to do so, but I was later told in an email last week: “we regret to advise that no compensation arises under the EU261 regulation as your flight was disrupted due to curfew at airport.”

I think that this is an exaggeration of the truth at best. Although we couldn’t land at LBA because the airport was closed, it was not the reason for the delay.

Any idea how I can contest this myself? Ryanair customer services were not helpful. Contact financial ombudsman services?

Cheers,

R.

I *think* if the airline couldn’t have done anything about it, ie weather or the airport being shut, they don’t have to pay out.

Tom is correct. You’ve no right to compensation under 261 if the delay was through factors outside of the airline’s control such as weather.

One of the significant downsides of the directive is that where previously you’d have likely received something (varying from very reasonable to not) for a lot of things beyond the scope of the directive now you’ll often get nothing if it’s outside of the remit because the compensation for things covered can be very onerous for airlines, especially budget ones where it can run to 10s of times the ticket price. (Of which much is tax the airline still has to pay too)

Of course the cause of the initial delay may well have been covered but a closed airport isn’t. Do you know why you didn’t depart on time?

yeah if both legs are delayed by weather I think you’ve no hope – fairly lucky to have flown at all – just before covid there was a decent storm in the UK and we just got stuck in malta for a couple of extra days – we could claim for costs (which we didn’t bother as it was easier to do so via travel insurance) but no compensation. Decent travel insurance will pay out for these kinds of delays.

Thanks for the replies. That’s a shame. I read a “no-win-no-fee” claim website which stated that:

“Bad weather must also affect the ‘flight in question’ for airlines to use as a defence. If your flight was delayed because of the knock-on effects of a different flight being affected by bad weather, your flight should be claimable.”

Also that:

“Bad weather must be ‘freak’ or ‘wholly exceptional’ and considered an extraordinary circumstance for an airline to use it as a defence against paying compensation. For example, heavy snowfall during summer in Egypt would be both freakish and wholly exceptional, whereas heavy snowfall during winter in a ski resort would be neither.”

Whether that website can be trusted or not is another thing.

I think, in this case, it was the weather delaying the previous flight from Leeds to Warsaw that had a knock-on effect. If this kind of this is exempt then fair enough, it just irked me a bit for them to say that airport curfew was the cause for the delay, when I know full well it wasn’t.

However, aside from contacting a no-win no-fee lawyer and dealing with less-than-helpful Ryanair customer services, I don’t know how I would go about checking this. Ironically it was Ryanair that sent me the EU 261 info after the delayed flight!

This webpage seems very informative.

WHICH guide

If the weather caused a delay to an earlier flight and mine was not directly affected by the weather, then it’s not an extenuating circumstance apparently.