in the air

Yesterday was a good day for European airlines without major delays at most airports so even easyJet managed to run without too many delays. However, there seemed to be a problem at Madrid in the evening and this illustrates all too clearly easyJet’s woes – it is also a good example of what you should do when considering whether to claim compensation under EU regulations.

Flights between Madrid and London were delayed in the evening but look at the difference:

Ryanair’s flight to Gatwick was one hour 15 minutes late

Two British Airways flights to Heathrow were delayed by about an hour

Iberia’s flight to Heathrow was around forty minutes late

and

easyJet’s flight to Gatwick was three-and-half hours late

Whilst there could be a special reason for the easyJet flight being delayed by so much more than other flights last night, it does seem just another example of easyJet being significantly worse than the competition. It is likely that any passenger approaching them for compensation under EU regulations would be given the brush off under the “circumstances beyond our control” clause. That would be fair enough but why was easyJet so much later than all the other airlines?

EU regulations require the airline to provide refreshments for delays of two hours or more and compensation of €250 for delays of three hours or more.

There will be many instances this summer when easyJet has delays of this magnitude which can only be blamed partially on “circumstances beyond their control”.

In these cases, we recommend you look at the departure and arrival times of other airlines and either take the matter to an agency such as www.euclaim.co.uk who hold vast amounts of data on aircraft movements and will pursue the airline on your behalf if they feel they are partially to blame, or you could take legal action yourself.

Note

To the relief of many of our readers, we will lay off easyJet for a while now. The point has been made. However, it is only through bad publicity and paying claims that the airline will be made to improve. We really need the tabloids to take up the cudgels so we just hope The Daily Mail is up to the task!

You might recall that last week Ryanair settled a legal action brought by Stelios. He was upset that he had been branded a cheat for not publishing easyJet’s punctuality record. Ryanair appeared to accept that Stelios was not personally involved in this and therefore paid up. The actual question of easyJet’s poor timekeeping was not part of the legal action.

Then, mysteriously, just a couple of days after the settlement, The Sunday Times published a damaging story about the serious timekeeping problems of easyJet. Even stranger, this article appeared in the Business section of the paper – it was really a general interest subject which should have been in the main section since there was no business or investment issue in the piece.

It is well known that much of the Business sections of the Sunday newspapers are based on PR “drops” from companies wanting to boost themselves or spread poison on their rivals.

Do you think there is just a vague possibility that an Irish company might have helpfully fed this story to The Sunday Times?

German newspapers are full of easyJet stories at the moment because of delays and cancellations at Berlin and we imagine the British press will soon follow, with or without any help from our Irish friends.

If you doubt that easyJet has problems just go to the Arrivals section of any UK airport where they operate and look at their evening flights. Yesterday was not a good day for any airline because of some go-slows by air traffic controllers in Spain and France. Delays were to be expected but it is worth looking at how the different airlines coped.

Most of British Airways’ Gatwick flights arrived on schedule with a few more than fifty minutes late. EasyJet had fourteen flights delayed by between an hour and four hours. They also had at least four evening cancellations – including a flight to Dalaman. This is not funny – it is one thing trying to rebook a flight to Amsterdam but try getting a seat on a flight to Dalaman in high season. Tabloid journalists should be queuing up to write some “easyJet ruined my holiday” stories.

Air traffic control problems will probably get worse in the next three weeks. This will give easyJet an excuse for its problems but, if you are delayed by more than three hours or have a cancelled flight, you should not accept this excuse. The airline must be compared with other airlines. Yesterday was fairly typical – other airlines managed with minimal delays, easyJet did not.

If you have a delay or cancellation, do not hesitate to go to Court – but evidence of other airlines’ performance will help your case.

Only by publicity and having to pay compensation will easyJet learn – let’s hope they learn quickly.

The July edition of Inside Traveller contained an article criticising easyJet for its serious operational failings. The City has long though that the airline would be more profitable if it could just squeeze a bit more from its passengers and cut a few costs. Our view is that the airline would have been much more profitable for the last few years had its operations been better managed.

Nearly every summer they have the same problem. They suddenly wake up to find themselves under-staffed for the number of flights they have to operate. This leads to delays, cancellations and the need to charter aircraft and crews from other airlines. Furthermore, some of their flights are scheduled so that they are almost certain to operate late because of over-optimistic views on how quickly aircraft can be turned round at some airports.

Ryanair were forced to apologise to Stelios last week over claims that he hid the airline’s bad timekeeping. It is worth noting that no one disputed the timekeeping question – it was merely an issue of whether Stelios himself was to blame and, as a non-Executive shareholder in the airline, this was clearly not the case.

We are pleased that The Sunday Times ran an article yesterday detailing the many delays and cancellations the airline is suffering, They added that the operators of Gatwick Airport had spoken to the airline about their concerns this issue was having on the airport’ s operations. Similar articles have appeared in the German press.

There are two ways easyJet can be made to improve.

Firstly, the more publicity, the better. A few “shock horror” stories in the summer tabloids will do no end of good.

Secondly, they should be made to pay. Their standard response to a claim for compensation for a delayed or cancelled flight under the EU regulations is to deny the claim and say the problem was due to reasons beyond their control. In most cases this is wrong. If you suffer a delay or cancellation, we suggest you send a formal request for compensation. If you hear nothing after four weeks (which is quite normal because they are hopeless at handling complaints as well), then threaten Court action if you do not receive compensation within two weeks. Then simply fill out a small claims form and wait for the Court date. The airline will probably contact you a few days before the due date and offer a small amount to settle the case. You should refuse it and go to Court. It is unlikely they will  defend a case and, even if they did, their record is now so obviously bad that they would have serious difficulties. We would be happy to help if requested.

EasyJet is a good airline which is being seriously let down by part of its management. It is in everyone’s interests that it is forced to improve.