The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said that passengers affected by the NATS flight planning system failure on 8 September are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays and cancellations directly caused by the disruption.
The CAA anticipates that the technical issue affecting National Air Traffic Services (NATS) will constitute an “extraordinary circumstance” under UK passenger rights rules. Delays and cancellations caused by the subsequent knock-on effects of the incident are also likely to fall under the same category.
This means airlines are unlikely to have to pay compensation for qualifying delays or cancellations resulting from the NATS disruption.
However, the CAA stressed that airlines remain responsible for looking after affected passengers.
Airlines must offer passengers whose flights have been cancelled a choice between a refund, re-routing at the earliest opportunity or re-routing at a later date. Where passengers are delayed, airlines must provide appropriate meals and refreshments and, where necessary, hotel accommodation.
The CAA also said airlines should keep passengers informed and advise them of their rights throughout the disruption.
Where airlines are unable to provide suitable care or replacement flights, the CAA expects them to reimburse passengers for reasonable costs incurred in making their own arrangements.
The NATS issue caused hundreds of UK flights to be delayed or cancelled on 8 September, with disruption continuing afterwards as airlines and airports dealt with the resulting operational problems.
The CAA said NATS will provide a technical report on the incident as part of its regulatory framework. The Government has also asked the regulator to conduct an independent review to establish what happened and assess how resilient NATS is in delivering its services.
A UK Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson said:We know many passengers have faced significant disruption and frustration following the NATS system issue on Tuesday, 8 September, and we understand the impact this has had on their travel plans.
As part of our established regulatory framework, NATS will be providing a technical report on the incident shortly. In addition, the Government has asked the UK Civil Aviation Authority to carry out an independent review of the disruption to establish what happened and consider how well NATS is set up to deliver a resilient service in the future.
In the meantime, we have reminded airlines of their responsibilities to look after passengers whose flights have been delayed or cancelled. We consider that disruption caused by the NATS outage is likely to be considered the result of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ under passenger rights rules. This means that although passengers should be looked after by airlines, they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident.
The CAA noted that its interpretation of “extraordinary circumstances” is guidance rather than a definitive ruling on individual cases. Each case will depend on its specific facts, and passengers can still seek compensation, including through the courts, if they disagree with the interpretation.
The guidance applies to UK Regulation 261/2004, covering flights departing from the UK and flights arriving in the UK on UK and EU carriers.
