I bought a return ticket from AirEuropa:
Origin: Lisbon – Destination: Madrid – Flight Nº UX1158 – Date 31/08/2011 – Time: 19h30
Origin: Madrid – Destination: Lisbon – Flight Nº UX1157 – Date 04/09/2011 – Time: 18h35
On the 31st of August, the flight UX1158 (Lisbon-Madrid) was delayed for more than 2 hours, and finally cancelled at 23h. The reason given to the passengers for the flight cancelation were technical problems related to the aircraft.
The passengers were then taken to the AirEuropa Customer Service Office at the Lisbon Airport to have their flights rescheduled. My flight to Madrid was then booked for the following day: Flight Nº UX1156 – Date 01/09/2011 – Time: 15h45.
Given the
Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, I requested the compensation according to Article 7, paragraph 1 a) of the referred regulation, of 250 euros for the inconveniences caused.
Besides this compensation I also requested the extra transport expenses I had between the airport and my place of stay in Lisbon, according with the referred regulation, Article 9, paragraph 1 c) “transport between the airport and place of accommodation (hotel or other)”.
Of course the reply of the company 15 days later was:
"We are very sorry for the need to cancel the mentioned flight, with it being impossible for the company to perform this flight as was originally programmed, due to an unexpected flight safety shortcoming, being this an extraordinary circumstance for the company."
(...)
We would like to inform you that, in accordance to Article 5.3 of Regulation (CE) 261/04, the carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken, being specified on Whereas nº14 and 15, when it is consider a extraordinary circumstance: as political instabilit y, meteorological conditions, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affected the operation of an operating carrier, or the impact of an air traffic management decision.
On the other hand, the whole passage received assistance like accomodation in a hotel, and shuttle airport - hotel - airport."
Since I find this "extraordinary circunstances" reason veeery ambiguous I insisted on the complaint:
"You must agree that the definition of "extraordinary circumstances" in EU Regulation 261/2004 is somewhat vague: “political instability, meteorological conditions, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes”. However, I could not see any reference to mechanical failure of the aircraft in the regulation. I must underline the fact, that the maintenance of the equipments used by your airline company is your responsibility, therefore if there’s a failure of your equipments that interferes on the service delivery your customers paid for, it’s (logically) your responsibility. From your reply, one could presume, that you’re saying that problems with the maintenance of the aircraft led to flight safety shortcomings. I sincerely hope that’s not the case for the sake of AirEuropa passengers and fleet.
I understand that you’re are interpreting the regulation on your supposed benefit, but using that statement goes against what a customer expects from an airline service: getting to the destination, on time and
safely."
Some days ago I received a reply...
Plain repetition of the first reply, but asking for my bank account details to transfer me the taxi expenses I had...around 14euros. Well..better than nothing, but I'll never fly Air Europa again for sure.
Seriously this "unexpected safety shortcomings" is very tricky excuse...