Reply To: Advice about delayed Qatar Airways flight

[Lady London]

I would say there’s a good chance you are stuck with it.
Weather is a “get out of jail” card exempting airlines from paying compensation.

Many, many times airlines will lie and try to say a delay was caused by weather, when it wasn’t. But in this case with snow about, even though the airline should have got their act together and ensured to have deicing done on time I think they’ll get away with it.

Ground handlers not being there to welcome planes or process them out or subcontracted baggage handlers not being available could be argued to still be the airline’s fault. But as every aircraft leaving Manchester probably needed deicing and perhaps only 1 team deicing, or few sets of equipment for the whole airport, and as we know airports on the UK simply don’t maintain enough teams or snow equipment anyway, on balance I would say Qatar can squirm out of paying you compo.

What concerns me more is that in the US, the Department of Transportation says passengers may not be kept on an aircraft on the ground longer than, I think, 3 hours and passengers must be allowed to get off the plane if any delay is longer than that. The plane must return to a gate if it’s left the gate, and passengers must be allowed back off the plane into the terminal over that time. There are heavy fines for airlines if passengers are confined on the plane longer and the DoT has indeed levied them. This concerns me more and I am wondering why the CAA in the UK does not protect passengers in the same way.