When a plane pulls up to the pump and the fuel supplier is out of gas, who’s responsible for compensating passengers whose flights are cancelled? Several airlines and their Lisbon suppliers are fighting that one out.
Easyjet, Ryanair and TAP are all unhappy with being required to pay compensation to passengers under EU regulations for flights that were cancelled at Lisbon in May, 2017 when fuel supplier Galp had a fuel system failure that led to cancellation of 98 flights and long delays for 252 more.
The airlines at first refused to pay out the hundreds of Euros claimed under the rules, but Portugal’s National Civil Aviation Authority has now ruled that the airlines are liable, despite their claim that “It was an external factor, we have no control over fuel failures at airports.
The three airlines have all agreed to go ahead with payments as ordered, but are demanding that Galp repay them, and have said they will go to court if an agreement can’t be reached.
