Key bad weather judgments

However, since the EU Regulation does not provide a clear definition of “extraordinary circumstances”, there is still a lot of room for interpretation. In recent years, various claims have refined the term “extraordinary circumstances”.There have been a number of landmark judgements relating to bad weather that we have put together for you here:

No compensation

In general, air passengers are not entitled to compensation for bad weather conditions if the following types of bad weather occur:
- Ash cloud: This sort of natural catastrophe is described as a case of “force majeure". Air traffic is restricted and flight bans have to be imposed. The ash cloud impedes visibility for the pilots and ash particles can also affect the sensors in altitude and speed measuring devices.
- Bad weather: If the weather is exceptionally bad, flights are often grounded or have to take off later. Extreme weather conditions like snow, storms, sleet and fog release the airlines from their obligation to pay compensation.
- Thunderstorms: The District Court (Landgericht) of Darmstadt ruled that there is also no entitlement to compensation if a previous flight had to make an emergency landing due to a thunderstorm, meaning that the following flight was delayed or cancelled as a result.(District Court of Darmstadt, judgment of 6 November 2013 – 7 S 208/12)
- Headwind: Generally, air passengers are not entitled to compensation in cases of extreme headwind.
- Lightning strike: If the previous flight was hit by lightning, meaning that the next flight is delayed or cancelled, then passengers are in most cases not entitled to compensation.

https://www.flightright.com/your-rights/bad-weather