RYANAIR has lost the latest round in its legal battle to avoid paying for hotels, meals and drinks for passengers disrupted by delayed flights during the Icelandic volcano eruption in 2010.
European Union rules oblige airlines to provide passenger care – but not compensation – when flights are cancelled by "extra- ordinary circumstances" beyond their control.
But Ryanair argues the closure of airspace following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano was so extraordinary that the rules should not apply.
In a legal "opinion" issued yesterday, an Advocate General of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg said: "In everyday language, the term 'extraordinary circumstances' refers to all circumstances over which the air carrier has no control: an event which is not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and is beyond the actual control of that carrier on account of its nature or origin.
"In the view of the Advocate General, all events which meet that description are bracketed together under a single notion, leaving no room for a separate category of 'particularly extraordinary' events which would fully release the air carrier from its obligations."
The "opinion" will now be considered by the full court which will deliver a final verdict later this year. The view of the Advocate General is followed in about 80% of cases.
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