Ryanair and extraordinary circumstances

Ryanair’s extraordinary-circumstances defence

Ryanair flies through the busiest airspace in Europe, and French ATC strikes are a genuine and frequent cause of its cancellations: a strike by air-traffic controllers is outside the airline’s control and, for the flights it actually grounds, is extraordinary. The same goes for ATC flow restrictions imposed for weather or staffing on the day, airport closures, and security incidents. What Ryanair cannot claim as extraordinary is its own planning: crew rostering, the absence of standby crew, aircraft availability, and its own staff’s strikes — the Court of Justice settled in Airhelp v SAS that an airline’s own staff striking over pay is inherent in running the business.

Ryanair’s high utilisation makes knock-on delays common. A late inbound aircraft is only an excuse if the original cause was extraordinary and Ryanair could not reasonably have avoided the later delay; a rotation planned with no slack is Ryanair’s choice. Technical faults are within the airline’s control under Wallentin-Hermann and van der Lans, whatever the maintenance record.

When Ryanair cites an extraordinary cause, ask for the specific restriction or event, its time and its airport, and whether other Ryanair flights from the same airport operated. A general “ATC delays in Europe today” is not proof for your flight.

The legal test

Article 5(3) of Regulation 261/2004 (EU261) excuses Ryanair 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 Ryanair 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 Ryanair’s control (airport staff, ground handlers not employed by Ryanair, 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 Ryanair’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.
• Ryanair’s own IT systems failing, schedule changes and over-booking.

Reasonable measures

Even for a genuine extraordinary event, Ryanair 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 Ryanair

Ask for the specific event, its time and place, whether it applied to your flight rather than the day in general, and what measures Ryanair took. Keep the answer: it is the evidence AviationADR (UK flights) or a court will assess. Refund, re-routing and care are owed in every case — extraordinary circumstances only ever affect the €250, €400 or €600 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.