Under EC Regulation 261/2004 Easyjet has gone down for 400€ in Scotland over a 6-hour delay due to air traffic control problems. Although the Sheriff was satisfied that the problems amounted to “extraordinary circumstances” he was not satisfied that Easyjet had taken all reasonable steps to avoid their effects. In particular he thought that they might have had more spare aircraft available, and was unimpressed with the fact that all the spares which Easyjet might have deployed mysteriously suffered from “unexpected flight safety shortcomings”.
See DUNBAR v EASYJET AIRLINE CO LTD [2015] ScotSC 70 (04 November 2015), available on BAILII.