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Is there any way to check if what the airline is telling me (i.e. “delay caused by air traffic control issues”) is true?
We flew from LHR to HAN via DOH on QR110 departing LHR 15:35 21/6/25, due to arrive DOH at 00:25 with a 2 hour 15 minute layover for onward departure on QR976 from DOH 02:40 (22/6/25) to HAN.
We departed about 1.5/2 hours late from LHR and as a result they rebooked us (before we had landed) onto the next flight to HAN about 12 hours later. As a result, we arrived at our final destination approximately 17 hours later.
As you all know, this would give us EUR600 compensation each under EU rules if airline-caused, however, they have rejected our claim and are telling us that it was due to “Air Traffic Control” and therefore not their fault.
This may well be true as it was the day or two immediately prior to Iran bombing Qatar and at that time all flight travelling in that direction were travelling through two corridors (either above Iran or below Egypt) which no doubt did cause delays due to a bottleneck effect.
But is there any way to very this independently as of course QA would say that, wouldn’t they?
As an aside, the air crew on our inbound DOH flight told us that they would get the connection held as we were close enough to make it and so we legged it across DOH airport. But we landed at one end and the HAN flight was departing at the other and the airport is massive! Anyway, we made it to the gate with Last Call still showing on the board and 10 mins to go (prepared to travel without our baggage) and the gate agent saw us and refused to let us board. In the end, that flight pushed back 20 mins late and so we could have easily got on it. Very annoying – and think we should be at least compensated for the effort we put in on that run! We then had a 3 hour wait in the queue to get hotel accommodation etc sorted out – it seems that DOH is great for transiting through but when things don’t quite go to plan they are not set up that well for it.
Do these firms that claim to help you get compensation (in return for a large slice of the pot) have access to any other data sources that may indicate the facts as a % of something would still be better than 100% of nothing.
Any advice gratefully received.
Ben
@bfreeman1000 – unfortunately there is no source for independent verification of what you are being told. If the doors were closed and your aircraft appeared ready to depart, it’s highly likely that ATC didn’t allow pushback per the planned schedule.
With many airlines including BA, if you have reason to doubt the basis of rejection of your claim, you can go to ADR at no cost risk, but QR doesn’t offer ADR so you have to take them to court and risk losing the fee if what you have been told is correct.
You could potentially press QR by asking for evidence, saying you will otherwise pass the matter to a claims handling company or issue a court claim, but they may not take any notice.
Thanks JDB. We actually boarded about 45-60 mins late, and then sat on the plane for a while, and then ultimately took off about 90 mins late. As I said above, given what was going on in the Middle East at the time, having ATC as the reason does appear reasonable. I guess there’s nothing wrong with doing as you say and going back to QR and also to a claims handling company. It’s not going to cost me anything.
One thought I had was if there is a way to see generally what was happening to flights from the UK travelling in that direction on that day since if there were many delays on several flights then more likely to be outside the airline’s control.
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