With snow now blanketing much of the UK, it seems like an appropriate time to raise awareness of our entitlements in the event of flight delays or cancellation.

To clarify, under EU regulations, passengers are entitled to re-imbursement or re-routing AND compensation of at least 250 euros if their flight is cancelled or delayed by more than two hours (three hours for longer flights). Airlines are exempted from making this payment only if they are able to prove that the cancellation is a result of extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

Not all airlines, however, have adhered to this regulation, and it seems that the Air Transport Users’ Council (AUC), the body responsible for implementing the directive in the UK, lacks the necessary bite. Last week I was contacted by a constituent who is nearing the end of his tether after spending months trying to claim the compensation owed to him by EasyJet. Although unable to invoke any exemption, EasyJet have simply eschewed their duties and ignored the AUC’s attempts to enforce them. A quick Google search reveals that this is far from an isolated incident.

In blogging about this I hope to raise awareness of passenger rights and EasyJet’s evasion of responsibility. However, if you have already been left out of pocket by the unlawful actions of an airline, I suggest you contact the AUC to seek redress: the more complaints they receive, the more likely they are to take action.