Originally Posted by
sunrisegirl
I'm not going to get entrenched in this - clearly as a lawyer you're far more intelligent than I - but if the aircraft was unable to operate due to an unexpected problem (and let's face it BA won't take off if they know a problem will bring them straight back to the airport) and there was no other aircraft what would you do?
If BA kept no aircraft available for problems like this? What would I expect BA to do? Simple: Pay. I believe (and I would expect the ECJ sharing my view), a serious carrier is exepected to have an aircraft available. Next question you might ask: What would I do if all spare aircrafts I hold available are in use this evening because half of the fleet suffers from unexepected problems? Simple: Pay. I believe (and I would expect the ECJ sharing my view) a serious carrier needs to have maintenance so good that things like this do not happen.
As a customer I do not care why the serious carrier cannot deliver. However, technical problems are generally within to business risk of a carrier and they are never "unexpected" - they do happen and if a carrier does not expect what happens all the time, the compensation mechanism kick in. The same with my clients: They are not interesting WHY my infrastructure is not working, they want to see a result and this is what I want to see from a carrier. If not: Pay.