Thousands of Brits left stranded as over 500K flights cancelled: Are you eligible for a refund?

British holidaymakers are facing major flight delays as over 500,000 flights coming in and out of the UK have been cancelled. The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) issued an apology for the ‘technical issue’ at midday on Monday, August 28, as reported by BBC.

Many major airlines such as Ryanair, EasyJet, Wizz Air, Loganair and Aer Lingus have issued warnings to their customers that delays and cancellations are to be expected for their flights. Due to the major issue, many Brits are stranded and unable to travel back on what is considered as one of the biggest travel days of the year.

NATS has identified the issue

NATS issued a statement at 15:15 BST that they had found the cause of the problem and had also found a solution that, according to them affected their ‘ability to automatically process flight plans’.

The National Air Traffic Services then added that they had engineers monitoring the situation as the system returned to normal. NATS had highlighted that ‘UK airspace is not closed, we have had to apply air traffic flow restrictions which ensures we can maintain safety’.

How are passengers affected?

Naturally, this major issue caused a lot of problems for all passengers and most were left in the dark about how long the problem would last. Some passengers shared their experience with BBC News.

Chris Wroe explained that he and his family were waiting for their flight back home from The Netherlands when the app had said that their plane wouldn’t depart until 2 am:

“On the app it's saying departure at 2 am tomorrow," the father travelling with a one-year-old said. "Staff at check-in just said it's an indefinite delay”

Kim Rabbits told Radio 5 Live that she had boarded the plane and then it was announced that the UK was not accepting any flights and that they were stuck on the runway:

We're all boarded and the doors are locked, and we've been told we need to stay put in case we get a green light

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How can you claim compensation for major delays?

When there are major delays and cancellations, it is possible for passengers to claim their money back to compensate for the issue.

As reported by INews, passengers are entitled to a refund or to be rebooked onto another flight to their destination in the case of cancellations - this applies even if it is the airline's fault. Passengers are also entitled to ‘care and assistance’ if the delay is past a certain time, also whether or not it is the airline’s fault.

The care and assistance usually provide food and drink for passengers as well as a form of communication - by refunding the price of phone calls - and finally offering accommodation and transport if passengers are delayed overnight.

Moreover, if your flight is delayed by 5 hours or more but not cancelled, you may choose not to fly and get a full refund on your ticket. Finally, passengers can claim compensation for a delay lasting 3 hours or more and cancellations if it is the airline’s fault.

Naturally, the amount of compensation you receive depends on how long your delay was as well as how long the distance was to your destination.

There are exceptions when a refund isn’t possible for delays and this occasion on Monday, August 28 is such a case. Indeed delays caused by an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ - which includes restrictions on air traffic control - are not eligible for compensation.

Lisa Webb, Which? consumer law expert added:

Although air traffic control issues are classified as ‘extraordinary circumstances’ and passengers will not be entitled to compensation, airlines should be doing all that they can to keep their passengers up to date on the situation, supporting them on the ground with food and accommodation and doing their best to get them to their destination as soon as possible.

Sources used:

BBC: ‘Airlines warn of UK flight delays over air traffic control fault’

Telegraph: ‘Over 500 UK flights cancelled after air traffic control fault’

Euro News: ‘UK air traffic control delays: Compensation, when to go to the airport and more advice’

INews: ‘Flight delay compensation: When you can claim for cancelled or delayed flights after air traffic problems’