Reply To: Cancellations due to airport curfews

[JDB]

Richie wrote:

Thx @LL. Yes it does look like commercial decisions.

On Saturday aircraft G-LYN operating IBZ-LCY was not going to make it back to LCY before the lunchtime curfew.
It was diverted to LGW and then positioned to STN.

Meanwhile G-LCAF routing LCY-FLR-STN was cancelled on saturday because the aircraft was required for LCY-JMK on Sunday to replace G-LCYN.

@Richie – even if these were commercial decisions, it still doesn’t address your original post above from a couple of weeks ago. There answer is that, as always with these situations, it depends on the specific circumstances of each case. If a curfew is cited as the proximate cause of a delay or cancellation it might well constitute ‘extraordinary circumstances’ in much the same way as ATC weather related flow restrictions force airlines to make commercial decisions about which flights to cancel while still being allowed to avoid 261 compensation payouts. Crew running out of hours can similarly be a complex area. These are claims that can be tough to argue at CEDR or MCOL, particularly when the Court isn’t supposed to analyse the minutiae of any cancellation.