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Hello. Hoping someone can help guide if I have any recourse for any compensation at all for my delayed flight. On 18th June I flew BA 478 from LHR to IBZ. I arrived in Ibiza 5.5 hours late as we were diverted to Palma as Ibiza had closed the runway due to a seaplane having an accident on the runway. We sat on the tarmac in Palma for 4 hours with no food or drink or anything. The runway wasn’t closed for too long as all the Heathrow flights that departed after us that day (two of them) all landed with less than an hour’s delay. And they all landed before us. We were just left sitting on the plane in Palma. I’m guessing I’m not due UK261 compensation but am I due anything at all as we were given no food (there was none). We were all on that plane for eight hour with only water and mini bags of pretzels. Thanks in advance to any replies.
It’s fairly difficult to attribute the diversion and delay to BA which is the basic test. The accident at IBZ was entirely outside BA’s control and they will have diverted on ATC instructions. BA would hardly want to have its aircraft blocked somewhere any longer than necessary; it is a cost and inconvenience to an airline as much as to the passengers. I’m sure they set off again as soon as they were permitted to and what other aircraft were doing is irrelevant.
In respect of the absence of sustenance, there is no sanction for failure to provide it and the Regulations provide numerous exceptions for reasons of practicality. If they didn’t have food on board, obtaining it isn’t quite like running into Tesco for a sandwich and would have risked additional delay.
There is actually an exemption from providing duty of care where doing so could cause further delays to the flight. And it’s harder when the delay is a rolling one so hard to plan for doing anything.
It’s not always easy to get supplies to a plane and get them loaded, it requires elevated platforms (probably not the right term but you know what I mean) and staff and so on.
BA might toss a few avios your way if you complain but that’s about all they will do.
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