Just trying to annoy Wizzair – Flight Cancellation during heatwave

[yonasl]

On the 18th July my flight with Wizzair (Romania – Luton) was cancelled.

– At around 2pm my plane was flying from Romania to Luton and was sent to Stansted

– It was then supposed to go to Luton, pick up passengers, return to Romania and pick me up to flight back home

– Of course the plane never made it out of Stansted. So my Romania – LTN flight was cancelled

I totally get there was an historic heatwave and Luton was closed for a few hours BUT since Wizzair annoys me so much I was wondering if they could have flown from the UK empty, picked us up and taken us home. instead they decided to cancel all remaining flights for the day.

So what do you think my chances are to annoy Wizzair with an EU261 request just like they insist in charging me for just everything (and treating us like cattle)?

[Richie]

If your expectations are ‘reasonable messures’ that meant the cancellation could’ve been avoided, then argue that point.

Is being ‘annoying’ unreasonable conduct? Is it vexatious?

[JDB]

There’s nothing to stop you claiming, but I think they will rely upon Recital 15. In terms of whether it was reasonable to send the aircraft back empty, I think the answer is no. You are forgetting the pax at LTN also expecting to travel on that aircraft and in the general mess of that day, they also might not have got timely ATC clearance.

I don’t know if Recital 15 has been tested, but it doesn’t seem to carry the ‘reasonable measures’ test and contrary to some of the advice given here that an ‘extraordinary’ incident relating to an inbound aircraft doesn’t then apply to the outbound (which I think is generally not correct anyway) this is also provided for in Recital 15.

[Lady London]

You should claim.
Your flight was from Romania to London.

That is all you are concerned with.
If your airline did not have a plane, a crew, or anything else they needed to fly you on time from Romania then that is not your problem

EU261 expects airlines to have spare kit and crew even at outstations.

Did the runway in Romania, where you were waiting to dwpart, melt? No it didn’t and any meltages elsewhere are not relevant.

Put in your claim for compo and also for duty of care.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Lady London]

Actually just thought about this a bit more and if Luton had refused aircraft to land at a time that covered when your departing flight would have asked for it, then as no aircraft will take off in Europe unless landing is secured then in that case, provided such an edict had been received from Luton covering your scheduled landing time, then this is exceptional circs as couldn’t take off because not able to land at your flight’s destination.

But if Wizz says when you ask them the reason for the cancellation was lack of aircraft to fly your flight, then even if that airplane was stuck in Stansted due to volcanic ash, that would not be exceptional circs for your flight. They are supposed to magic up a spare.

But if Luton had told Romania / Wizz no you can’t land here for the rest of the day then that clinches it. Exceptional circs directly affecting your particular flight as it couldn’t land at its destination. Drat 🙂

So yeah you get duty of care but no compo. Ask them the reason in case they give the wrong one 🙂

[JDB]

Lady London wrote:

But if Wizz says when you ask them the reason for the cancellation was lack of aircraft to fly your flight, then even if that airplane was stuck in Stansted due to volcanic ash, that would not be exceptional circs for your flight. They are supposed to magic up a spare.

@LL I think you reached the right answer in the end, but if you read Recital 15 (quoted below), what you say above isn’t correct (and it is something you have posited before) – if the absence of an aircraft is related to ATC decisions, this is explicitly allowed for (including for ensuing flights) and there will be other circumstances where no aircraft = ‘extraordinary’ and they don’t have to “magic up” a spare as part of all reasonable measures.

“Extraordinary circumstances should be deemed to exist where the impact of an air traffic management decision in relation to a particular aircraft on a particular day gives rise to a long delay, an overnight delay, or the cancellation of one or more flights by that aircraft, even though all reasonable measures had been taken by the air carrier concerned to avoid the delays or cancellation”

[yonasl]

Thanks guys.

Technically Luton was only closed for a few hours.

The plane landed in STN instead of LTN one hour late. On flightradar it then shows it took of from LTN the next morning. So we don’t know when the plane changed airports.

To be honest, it is sort of clearly an exc. circumstance but Wizzair was so annoying they just kept delaying the flight (9pm to 11pm then 1am then 2am). They only cancelled it at midnight when it was clear since 5pm this flight was not making it to the UK and back*. Hence just wanting to pay them back with some well deserved UK261 requests.

* I luckily saw this thanks to FlightRadar and other tools. I was able to extend my rental and was staying with friends there. But I can only think of the poor families and people waiting at the airport for hours instead of just being supported and being told to go home.