Virgin Atlantic pilots on strike: Compensation provided for the benefit of travelers in possession of their boarding pass
Many passengers complain that they have not received the scheduled compensation from Virgin Atlantic.
The British company can very well refuse to grant compensation, arguing that the pilots’ strike constituted an extraordinary circumstance.
European regulation 261/2004 establishing common rules for passenger compensation and assistance specifies that the air carrier is not required to pay the compensation provided for in article 7 if it is in able to prove that the cancellation is due to extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
The regulations state that a strike is an extraordinary circumstance: Such circumstances may occur, in particular, in the event of political instability, weather conditions incompatible with the completion of the flight concerned, security risks, unforeseen failures which may affect flight safety, as well as strikes affecting the operations of an operating air carrier.
Several carriers regret that the European legislator has not specified whether the strike must be internal (pilots, hostesses, stewards) or only external to the company (air traffic controllers, for example).
When the European Commission presented its revision of the regulation on passenger rights, it clarified the concept of “extraordinary circumstances”. These are events which are not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and which are beyond its effective control.
In an appendix, she gave examples, and considered the labor dispute among operating carriers to be part of extraordinary circumstances.
The airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, consider that the strike is internal, it cannot raise extraordinary circumstances.
It should be remembered, however, that a strike, even an internal one, can currently be the result of exceptional circumstances, if it is illegal.
We can appreciate the gesture of Virgin Atlantic, insofar as most companies are rather quick to affirm that they are victims of extraordinary circumstances: snow in winter, technical causes difficult to appreciate by non-experts.
Let us cite the example of certain passengers, who were eight hours late on a London-Athens trip. The British company refuses to compensate them, on the grounds that it would have been the victim of extraordinary circumstances, of which it does not specify the nature, certain hostesses having spoken, orally, the breakage of a windshield.
Many events can be described as exceptional circumstances
– war or political instability (leading to an unforeseen disruption or an inability to obtain fuel)
– illegal acts (terrorist, for example)
– sabotage of the aircraft
– security (closure of departure or arrival airport without prior notification, bomb threat on the plane or at departure and arrival airports, hostage taking, removal of unaccompanied baggage , removal of a rowdy passenger)
– the weather (conditions incompatible with a flight which must occur at the airports of departure, arrival or during the journey, airport closures, lightning, thunderstorm, turbulence)
– the impossibility of deicing the plane with departure
– medical reasons (a passenger or a member of the crew who is seriously ill or dies on board or during the flight)
– avian ingestion
– the discovery of a manufacturing defect
– unexpected safety problem (control system, cooling system, control system, flaps, rudders, landing gear) immediately before departure or in flight, when the aircraft has been maintained in accordance with the maintenance program.
The carrier must provide proof of the existence of these extraordinary circumstances, and indicate what measures he has taken to avoid problems on the aircraft.
Air operators are sparing no effort to avoid compensating you
There are many other reasons cited by airlines such as Virgin Atlantic for denying compensation. The weather conditions come in first but they must be severe enough to justify the delay, and the site does not hesitate to study the climatic histories to base their possible dispute. Technical problems, as well as the unavailability of staff, are arguments very often rejected by the courts: contractually, a carrier is required (it is happy) to ensure the proper maintenance of its devices, at rest time of its crews and must be able, if necessary, to delegate a replacement crew.
More rarely mentioned, bird strikes are part of the extraordinary circumstances admissible on condition that the company of Great Britain proves its claims! On the other hand, if the plane delay is the result of a weary strike, there is little chance of obtaining any compensation.