What are extraordinary circumstances ?

Extraordinary circumstances like bad weather, strikes, or medical emergencies may prevent you from receiving financial compensation of €250, €400 or €600 for your delayed, misconnected or cancelled flight, or denied boarding. 

Unfortunately, it’s true! But it’s also true that some airlines abuse this argument to justify flight disruptions and to not pay flight compensation.

Examples of extraordinary circumstances:

• Very bad weather – including low visibility, windstorms, snowstorms, and any extreme weather conditions,
• Strikes of airport staff, fuel suppliers or air traffic control (excluding airline staff),
• Natural disasters,
• Security threats,
• Political and civil unrest,
• Medical emergencies, and
• Air traffic control decisions.

Bear with us, we will explain in a moment what extraordinary circumstances are and provide you with examples of situations that are often considered extraordinary circumstances by airlines, but which are actually not.

Examples of extraordinary circumstances

We will help you understand everything about this topic!

Extraordinary circumstances are events or situations that are beyond the control of the airline, that the airline could not have anticipated, and that end up causing your flight to be delayed or cancelled.

Note that these circumstances only unentitle you to compensation, however the airline still must provide care (food, hotel, etc) and free rerouting or refund even in cases of natural disaster, stikes, whatever.

Here’s a list of extraordinary circumstances that legally excuse the airline from paying compensation, according to to EU Regulation 261/2004:

1 – Bad weather

Adverse weather conditions such as storms, snow, freezing rain or heavy fog exempt airlines from paying financial compensation for your delayed or cancelled flight.

You might have seen other flights taking off while yours remains stranded. This means nothing because the bad weather might be on the destination.

Anyway, under similar weather conditions, a captain may decide to land or take off, while other may not, and the captain is the flight’s supreme authority.

You hardly will ever be able to challenge his judgement and decisions.

Bad weather conditions can provide some airlines a good false excuse for not paying flight compensations.

Without the help of a claiming company you will have a hard time trying to prove that it was not the adverse weather conditions that caused the flight disruption, and your testimony as a witness is just your word against theirs.

So, unless you are sure that the bad weather really was the cause of the flight disruption, you should be represented by specialists like Aireclaim who have big weather and other technical databases and can check your case and fight for your compensation. 

Aireclaim is used to deal with airlines, and have pilots, lawyers and other specialists able to understand such technical stuff and even argue back.

2- Air sector strikes

Under european rules, airport personnel or air traffic control strikes are also considered extraordinary circumstances.

An airport’s baggage handlers strike can also apply to this scenario.

Unlike for adverse weather conditions, in this case it is not difficult for the passenger to know what motivated the flight delay, cancellation, or denied boarding.

If you are sure the cause is a strike, then forget it and don’t waste your time, you will never receive a compensation.

But if the strike is inside your airline, then you still are entitled even though some airlines do not recognize this.

3 - Bird strikes

A collision between an aircraft and a bird is a bird strike. 

Bird strikes have been included in the list of extraordinary circumstances since 2017, after a decision from the European Court of Justice, as they cannot be predicted by the airline. 

However some courts ruled the opposite way, arguing that it is a known risk and a part of the airlines daily operation.

4 - Natural disasters

A volcanic eruption or a hurricane can also be presented as valid reasons to exempt airlines from blame for the delay or cancellation of a flight. 

Of all the extraordinary circumstances that prevent passengers from receiving financial compensation for their flights, natural disasters are the most unpredictable of all. 

Mother Nature is changing.

5 – Security Threats and Political and Civil Unrest

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Terrorist attacks, political disturbances or other events that endanger the safety of passengers and cabin crew are obviously circumstances that are also beyond the control of the airline, since they cannot prevent them, much less predict them.

6 – Medical emergencies and rowdy passengers

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If a medical emergency occurs during a flight (with a passenger or even a member of the crew), the pilot may be required to divert the plane from its route so that all necessary urgent medical care is provided. 

In these cases, the airline cannot be held responsible for flight delays.

How do I really know if my flight problem was due to an extraordinary circumstance?

There’s no easy answer. Try to find out more about why the flight was delayed or cancelled. You can speak directly with the airline or the staff of your flight for more detailed information, but many times they do not know or are not allowed to disclose. 

Now that you know better the rules, if you are not convinced, you can enforce your legal rights and file a claim with Aireclaim.

Examples of situations that are often considered extraordinary circumstances by airlines but which are actually not

1 – Technical issues

Several Courts ruled that technical problems are not extraordinary circumstances, since regular maintenance of their planes should be the airlines biggest responsibility. 

If your flight was delayed or cancelled and the airline alleged technical problems, know that this is not considered an extraordinary circumstance, according to EU rules.

2 – Airline personnel strikes

Flight delays or cancellations due to a strike within the airline can be controversial when claiming financial compensation for your flight. 

But in reality it is simple: if decisions made internally by the airline’s management lead to the dissatisfaction of its workers, and therefore to a strike, the airline will not be able to invoke extraordinary circumstances since it was its actions that led to this outcome.

3 – Knock-on effects

When a flight is delayed because of the late arrival of a previous flight flown by the same aircraft it is called a knock-on effect. 

However, according to EU Regulation 261/2004, these domino effects do not automatically release the airline from the responsibility of paying financial compensation to passengers affected by flight disruptions. 

Having some standby crews and aircrafts strategically parked somewhere in Europe, able to reach any european airport in less than 3 hours in order to replace a missing aircraft, though expensive, is a solution within the airline’s control.

Why in some circunstances I cannot claim a flight compensation?

We remind you that compensation might be due if your flight reached its final destination more than 3 hours later than expected or your flight was cancelled without you being notified in time by the airline. 

If the airline invokes an “extraordinary circumstance” for the disruption of your flight, and it is proved that it really was the reason for the delay or cancellation, then you will not be entitled to receive financial compensation.

False Extraordinary Circumstances

As explained before, some airlines often claim false extraordinary circumstances to justify flight delays and cancellations. 

This strategy results very well with unprotected passengers (those who claim alone directly to the airline, without specialists like Aireclaim) saving millions of euros every year because most passengers just give up claiming compensation for their flight inconveniences. 

They are unable to argue back, and hiring a lawyer is more expensive than the compensation’s amount, even if they can find a lawyer with know-how in this specialized area.

Now you can easily understand why airlines usually hate claiming companies like Aireclaim.

By the way, did you notice that many flights permanently arrive 20 or even 30 minutes earlier than expected ?

Did you ever question why some airlines fake the flight time adding extra minutes? Here are the 2 reasons:

1-They get a good on-time reputation even when the flight is moderately delayed;

2- They do not pay compensation for delays up to 3h30m instead of 3 hours. This strategy saves millions.