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Is there any sort of legal recourse when a EU airline fails to meet it’s duty of care obligations with a 2+ hr delay? (i.e. offering drinks, meals phone calls etc.)
Had a delayed Wizz flight out of LTN several weeks ago. Scheduled flight time was 8.50pm and was gradually delayed till 12.25am. The last scheduled flight (which left on time) out of LTN that day was at 10pm. By the time the delay crossed the 2hr mark the airport was deserted and the only passengers remaining in the terminal were those on our flight.
Needless to say at that point all the airport shops were closed, leaving us unable to buy any food or drink. To cut a long story short, I made every effort to try and acquire drinks in the terminal, to no avail. At no point did airline/airport staff attempt to help me in my quest, despite my requests to do so. Furthermore, the gate agents were shockingly rude towards us during the short interaction we had with them.To make matters even worse for us, they managed to make up for lost time and had the aircraft doors open on arrival (to a slippery staircase covered in snow/ice) 2hrs and 58mins late, just 2 minutes short of being entitled to €400/passenger.
Considering all of the above I am not willing to just let this one go and want to see some accountability from the airline, especially in a case where there was actually a genuine need to get hold of some drinks that was not otherwise possible.
I am reluctant to contact Wizz about this only to fall on deaf ears.
What are our options?
@ZACK – there is not really any legal recourse. The Article 9 ‘Right to Care’ rules oblige an airline to provide “meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time” but there is no sanction for failure to provide the same.
Equally, it is generally considered reasonable to provide vouchers to use at airport outlets, but if everything was closed the airline can’t necessarily be expected to make its own catering arrangements. If they had provided vouchers, they would probably have been of the order of £5 per person. If the airline had failed to offer you anything but you had bought some food/drinks, Wizz might have been expected to pay those costs but compensation / indemnification is exactly that, i.e. not any sort of penalty, just a recovery of any costs. As for telephone calls, when in your home country, you can’t really expect much.
If you complain to Wizz, it will surely fall on deaf ears and they don’t owe you any money, but you could maybe report them to the CAA as they have been under some scrutiny.
Not used Luton for years, but are there no water dispensers or vending machines airside?
There is also this exemption listed in the opening section of the 261/2004 Regulation
(18) Care for passengers awaiting an alternative or a delayed flight may be limited or declined if the provision of the care would itself cause further delay.
Usually applies when there is a rolling delay.
But the airline can’t make the airport keep shops etc open.
CAA won’t sanction any airline in situations like this either.
And even if you did complain to them they are going to ask what Wizz said in response to your complaint.
@ZACK the other thing to bear in mind is that the refreshments/food that airlines are expected to provided is relative to the time of day and I think that at 10pm the regulator might reasonably expect that most people have eaten and won’t eat again until breakfast, so they may not be too interested.
If there is literally zero water available then that’s a health & safety legal issue with *the airport* – but I would assume the taps in the bathrooms were working.
I’m sorry you had a bad experience – I have also been vigorously shat upon by Wizz and luckily & thanks to @JDB able to in return vigorously roger them at the Ombudsman afterwards. Please have a think about your general preparedness – enough energy-dense food to keep you & your companions functioning for a day takes up very little space (90% chocolate bar / pack of nuts / beef jerky / etc).
You wouldn’t set off down the motorway [upon which you could suddenly be stopped for many hours without warning] without food, water, bogroll, bags, weather appropriate clothing and shoes…would you?
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