easyJet and extraordinary circumstances

What is — and is not — extraordinary on easyJet

easyJet’s network runs through capacity-constrained airports, so air-traffic-control flow restrictions are the defence it uses most, and often legitimately: a single-runway airport such as Gatwick loses departure slots the moment fog, wind or an ATC staffing shortage cuts the arrival rate, and Geneva and the French airspace easyJet crosses are regularly hit by ATC strikes. Those are outside the airline’s control. What is not extraordinary is what easyJet did with them — a flight cancelled the next morning “because of yesterday’s ATC problems” is a rotation decision, and easyJet must show it could not have positioned an aircraft or crew.

Technical faults on easyJet’s aircraft are within its control under Wallentin-Hermann and van der Lans, however unexpected. Crew shortages, crew running out of legal hours, and the airline’s own staff’s strikes are within its control. A wildcat strike by easyJet staff is treated the same way (Krüsemann). Bird strikes, lightning inspections that ground the aircraft, and runway closures are outside it.

For a knock-on delay ask easyJet what caused the first delay of the rotation; the defence only works if that original cause was extraordinary and no reasonable measure would have avoided the later disruption.

The legal test

Article 5(3) of Regulation 261/2004 (UK261) excuses easyJet from paying compensation only if it proves two things: that the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances — an event that is not inherent in the normal exercise of an airline’s activity and is beyond its actual control — and that it could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Both limbs are for easyJet to prove, for your specific flight.

Usually extraordinary

• Severe weather at the departure, arrival or en-route airports that actually prevented the flight.
• Air-traffic-control restrictions, capacity regulations, ATC system failures and ATC strikes, for the flights they held.
• Airport closures, runway incidents and security threats.
• Bird strikes (Pešková) and foreign objects on the runway.
• Strikes by third parties outside easyJet’s control (airport staff, ground handlers not employed by easyJet, ATC).

Usually not extraordinary

• Technical faults discovered during maintenance or on the day (Wallentin-Hermann, van der Lans), other than hidden manufacturing defects or sabotage.
• Crew shortages, crew sickness and crew running out of legal duty hours (TAP C-156/22).
• Strikes by easyJet’s own pilots, cabin crew or ground staff, including wildcat strikes (Krüsemann, Airhelp v SAS).
• Aircraft rotations and late inbound aircraft, unless the first delay itself had an extraordinary cause.
• easyJet’s own IT systems failing, schedule changes and over-booking.

Reasonable measures

Even for a genuine extraordinary event, easyJet must show it did what a reasonable airline would: used spare aircraft or crew where it had them, re-routed you at the earliest opportunity including on other airlines, and did not cancel the next day’s flights merely to reset its schedule. A knock-on cancellation hours after an ATC restriction lifted is where this limb most often fails.

What to ask easyJet

Ask for the specific event, its time and place, whether it applied to your flight rather than the day in general, and what measures easyJet took. Keep the answer: it is the evidence AviationADR or a court will assess. Refund, re-routing and care are owed in every case — extraordinary circumstances only ever affect the £220, £350 or £520 compensation. The general rules, with the case law cause by cause, are on the extraordinary circumstances page; ATC reasons are tested on the air traffic control page.