Originally Posted by
syntraveller89
If de-icing was the cause of delay and the flight was during the winter season, then it cannot be considered an extraordinary event. It would have been part of any airline's normal operation to be de-iced if they wished to operate out of CDG at that time of the year. CX should have been prepared for icy weather and planned accordingly.
Now if it was a blizzard in the middle of summer, then that's a whole different story.
Extraordinary events don't mean freak accidents and once-in-a-lifetime phenomena. The term pretty much always covers weather delays, ATC delays, or other things that are not in the airline's control. CX isn't just going to plan an earlier departure because of weather, because that's not how gate usage/allocation, pushback times, take-off and landing slots work.