Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
easyJet are not well known for being forthcoming on EC261, Ryanair are better, strangely. But this is a good example of where you would need to construct the case carefully. ATC is indeed a legitimate extraordinary circumstances defence, but easyJet are also responsible for minimising this and also for the outcomes. So if easyJet could have arranged their crew rotas to avoid this, or there was more they could reasonaby have done to reduce the delay, then they may well be liable. It's not the sort of thing where a quick form filling into to MCOL or CEDR will work, you need to assemble the details and arguments carefully for MCOL. For CEDR you don't have to do this so much, but the argument - and all details - will have to be carefully formulated.
Easyjets response...
To further explain what happened on the day; the aircraft scheduled to operate your flight arrived late into Nice. Air traffic control restrictions that substantially regulated airspace caused a day of disruption to our network and those of other European airlines. Air traffic controllers over France restricted air space due to staffing issues. There were also air traffic control restrictions over London, directly affecting London Luton due to capacity of air space. Long delays built up as flights waited for ‘slots’ to operate, sometimes taking several hours. The delays continued throughout the day and knocked on to later flights. The delays pushed our crew into their maximum legal operating hours and we had no other choice but to delay your flight until the next day. We do take reasonable measures to avoid delays and cancellations to our flights by having replacement crews and spare aircraft available in our network. In the circumstances, these options were not possible as the delay to your departure was as a direct result of air traffic control restrictions.
Any ideas how to appeal?