Paros_fan

Was supposed to fly PAS - ATH this morning but the flight was cancelled due to bad weather apparently.
The weather isn't great but I've flown this route multiple times in much worse conditions. This route is often delayed/cancelled due to technical difficulties and not sure if weather is just the excuse for today.

When they announced the cancellation people started leaving or queueing to speak to the agent.
I wanted to ensure I got on the next flight this afternoon, so called the call centre to 'jump the queue'
Unfortunately, there were no seats so changed it to tomorrow morning free of charge.

Should there be any form of compensation under the EU laws?
Was not offered any accommodation overnight or anything...

kanor

If you wish you can book a hotel for tonight and later A3 will have to pay it (along with reasonable restaurant receipts).
And you can also get a 250 euro compensation since, as you mentioned, its not a weather cancellation. Two strong arguments for this:
- your flight is cancelled because the incoming aircraft (OA62) was cancelled
- the comparable JNX-ATH OA5 operated normally

(Unless there was no specific problem with PAS airport this morning of course, which is hard to know with only 1 flight.)

Paros_fan

Thanks
Will draft email and see what they say.

NWIFlyer

For weather related cancellations, the airline is not liable for delay or cancellation compensation under EC261. Given the incoming flight was also cancelled, it might be weather in ATH that was to blame (which might cause ATC restrictions, for example). If you can prove it was MX related, then you are indeed entitled to 250 Euros in compensation, but doing so might well be more difficult.

The airline does still have a duty of care, and they are obliged to inform you of this (although the fact that you didn't queue for the desk might make that practically difficult for them). This means they have to refund your reasonable expenses - which, it might be argued, would not include a hotel if you actually live on Paros and have a relatively straightforward trip home. You could probably claim for the journey from the airport to home and back tomorrow, but presumably this would be such a small sum of money it would hardly be worth the aggravation other than on a point of principle.

kanor

To be clear, the incoming flight altogether is irrelevant for EU261, I only mentioned it to argue that for OP's flight the weather is probably not to blame. And OA62 is the only cancelled flight out of ATH this morning, so its very likely MX.

NWIFlyer

It is relevant - airlines can claim weather at many points down the line have affected ops. You may well be right in believing it was MX, but the OP still has to prove it was something different given all accounts from the airline are the same.

kanor

Can you provide proof for this? In my experience yes they always try to claim this but in the end they yield if presented with a credible threat of a lawsuit.

If starting airport is open, arriving airport is open and airspace between them is fine, an airline cant get out of eu261 compensation. The ops the airline chooses to run is of their concern and is no "extraordinary circumstance".

NWIFlyer

I agree - but you have to get that proof. I think that might be the OP's problem here. Is OA trying to pull a fast one? Yes, I think it probably is. Can that be easily proven? Not so sure.

I would certainly start by asking for a definitive statement of why the cancellation occurred and work from there.

Having re-read the legislation, I now also realise that the OP would be entitled to claim for a hotel irrespective of place of residence under the duty-of-care section - so my previous post was most likely inaccurate in that respect.

KLouis

Having flown for decades in from/to several airports in Greece, my experience is that when the airline claims bad weather for a delay or cancelation, it is indeed bad weather. I remember for instance, many years ago, how the passengers in ATH, me among them, were screaming at the poor OA agent because she said that our flight had been cancelled due to fog at HER (never seen this before or after that, but confirmed by my wife!), how planes could not fly because of the Sahara dust that limited visibility to ~50 m, how many planes had to fly back to ATH or were diverted to Chania after attempting to land because the south winds' force (coming from a 90 degree angle) had increased by a few mph in the half hour after the start of the flight, etc.

Greek airports are often special (the single 17-35 runway at Paros is 700 m long!!!) and conditions are often equally special (for a couple of days, winds were blowing at a force between 7-9, initially from the South, eventually turning from the North). My guess is, without knowing everything better, that there was indeed a weather-related cancellation.

NWIFlyer

Flightstats shows the outbound plane cancelled at 8.05am local time against a scheduled departure time of 7.30am. In your experience, is this likely to be consistent with a weather cancellation given the delay period, or would they give conditions at PAS longer to resolve?

KLouis

According to the National Weather Service's station at PAS, from 7:30-8:00 winds were from northerly directions (going from NW to NE) from 20, 5, then again 20 kmh, with frequent gusts up to 35 kmh. Whether this is OK for the small OA planes to take the turn and land, I don't have the slightest idea. On my boat, it certainly would not be the nicest ride but not necessarily "dangerous".

PS I can only access the data at 15 min. intervals. How fast the wind direction changes were, I can't say.

Knobbgb

From the experience of my friends, twice we've been involved in cancellations from PAS, both for technical reasons and on both occasions OA were very upfront about EU261 compensation so this anecdotal evidence would lead me to think they they don't normally "lie" about the reasons for cancellation.

When considering weather, remember that, apart from the very valid reasons already given, the cloud ceiling can also affect things. PAS is VFR only with no precision approach aids available and if the surrounding mountains are obscured by cloud, this can make approaches illegal, even if things "look" OK on the ground.

From experience again, as a local under the flightpath, on very windy days the flight will sometimes try to make an approach before aborting and returning to ATH. I wasn't on the island on 20th (I was stuck in Piraeus due to the ferry strikes!) so I don't know what the conditions were.