Rely on the most comprehensive, up-to-date legal content designed and curated by lawyers for lawyers
Work faster and smarter to improve your drafting productivity without increasing risk
Accelerate the creation and use of high quality and trusted legal documents and forms
Streamline how you manage your legal business with proven tools and processes
Manage risk and compliance in your organisation to reduce your risk profile
Stay up to date and informed with insights from our trusted experts, news and information sources
Access the best content in the industry, effortlessly — confident that your news is trustworthy and up to date.
Find up-to-date guidance on points of law and then easily pull up sources to support your advice with Lexis PSL
With over 30 practice areas, we have all bases covered. Find out how we can help
Our trusted tax intelligence solutions, highly-regarded exam training and education materials help guide and tutor Tax professionals
Regulatory, business information and analytics solutions that help professionals make better decisions
A leading provider of software platforms for professional services firms
In-depth analysis, commentary and practical information to help you protect your business
LexisNexis Blogs shed light on topics affecting the legal profession and the issues you're facing
Legal professionals trust us to help navigate change. Find out how we help ensure they exceed expectations
Lex Chat is a LexisNexis current affairs podcast sharing insights on topics for the legal profession
Discuss the latest legal developments, ask questions, and share best practice with other LexisPSL subscribers
Under the EU's 'Denied Boarding Regulations', airplane passengers are entitled to compensation if their flight is cancelled or delayed for more than a certain number of hours, depending on the distance to be flown, unless the disruption is caused by 'extraordinary circumstances'.
Typical examples of such out-of-the-ordinary situations include poor weather conditions (common), unexpected civil strife (less common) or herds of wildebeest crashing through the airport's perimeter fence and having an impromptu sit-in on the runway (rare).
The 'extraordinary circumstances' exemption is also commonly relied upon by airlines when technical faults to aircraft occur. Given the complexity of aircraft—an Airbus A380 contains about 4 million individual components—this is perhaps not a surprise.
However, a Court of Appeal case last week, Huzar v Jet2.com, has put a spanner in the works of this legal loophole, at least so far as the airlines are concerned.
Whilst the relevant test to be used when determining whether the exemption can be relied upon can be tricky to apply (for those with a LexisPSL subscription, see further analysis here), the upshot of the case is that most technical faults are likely to no longer be considered as being 'extraordinary circumstances' even where that fault was not visible on prior inspection or during routine maintenance. The CAA has admitted as much.
Perhaps. In any event, this case will present massive challenges to the industry.
The EU's figures state that compensation is payable on potentially 1.5%, 1% and 0.4% of long, medium and short-haul flights respectively. Although these Commission figures include data on flights that may be delayed due to ‘extraordinary circumstances’ (eg for which airlines do not need to pay compensation) it is clear that, with hundreds of millions of Europeans taking to the air every year and the exemption for 'extraordinary ci
Access this article and thousands of others like it free by subscribing to our blog.
Read full article
Already a subscriber? Login
0330 161 1234