A UK Supreme Court ruling opens the door to a multi-million pound windfall for passengers and a big headache for UK-based airlines that denied delayed-travel compensation when flights were held up by crew illness.
Under EU rules, carried over to British rules after Brexit, passengers are entitled to automatic compensation for delays beyond a certain length of time, unless the cancelation was due to “extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken."
The claim involved in the case was for £220 by a couple whose 2018 BA CityFlyer flight from Milan to London was canceled because the pilot felt unwell; they were booked onto another flight which arrived at London past the allowable delay time.
The court overturned airline practice of considering illness an extraordinary situation, opening claims for passengers who were delayed for that reason over the past six years.
In its ruling, the court said crew sickness “cannot be categorized as extraordinary," saying that “Staff illness is commonplace for any business. Just as the wear and tear of an aircraft’s physical components is considered an inherent part of an air carrier’s activity, so too is managing illness of staff. An event can be external to a carrier but still inherent to its operations. It is irrelevant whether staff fall ill whilst they are off-duty; their attendance or non-attendance for work is an inherent part of the carrier’s operating system.”
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