Published by Flight HelpPage revision published

Can an airline use an extraordinary event on an earlier aircraft rotation to reject my EU compensation claim?

Possibly, but the earlier event must be directly connected to your disruption and the reasonable-measures test still matters. Ask the airline to explain the chain from the earlier flight to yours. A generic statement that the aircraft arrived late is not the whole legal analysis.

Traveler organizing trip records and next steps after a flight disruption

What this answer depends on

  • Flights and passengers within Regulation (EC) No 261/2004. Check departure, destination, operating carrier and the specific conditions below; the airline name alone does not establish coverage.
  • Commission guidance permits consideration of an extraordinary circumstance on an earlier flight operated with the same aircraft where there is a direct causal link to the later cancellation or delay.
  • The reasonable-measures requirement remains relevant when the airline relies on an earlier-rotation event.
  • An airline must distinguish a qualifying extraordinary event from ordinary operational consequences; fixed compensation and care remain separate remedies.

Important exceptions

  • A long interval does not automatically break causation, and a short interval does not automatically prove it. The aircraft rotation and operational resources may require records unavailable to passengers. This page does not turn every knock-on delay into a separate claim for every earlier flight.

What to do next

  1. Ask which earlier flight and event the carrier relies on and how it affected the aircraft assigned to your service. Keep the answer alongside the original reason given to passengers.

  2. Build a simple timeline of the earlier event, your scheduled departure, later revised times and the replacement offered. Label times you know from official records separately from estimates.

  3. Ask how the carrier assessed reasonable mitigation, including feasible rerouting. Do not assume that a spare aircraft or crew was actually available simply because a timetable shows other services.

  4. If the explanation leaves a gap in the causal chain, identify that gap in the written claim. Preserve care requests and receipts independently of the compensation dispute.

  5. Have your flight details, the earlier flight identified by the airline, aircraft information if supplied, the event explanation, timing changes and all rerouting offers.

More booking questions

Is “late inbound aircraft” enough to establish an exemption?

Ask what caused the inbound delay and how the extraordinary-event and mitigation tests are met.

Checked against2024 Interpretative Guidelines on Regulation (EC) No 261/2004Regulation (EC) No 261/2004

Must I prove the airline had a spare aircraft?

Do not invent that fact. Request the carrier’s explanation of reasonable measures and challenge specific unsupported points.

Checked against2024 Interpretative Guidelines on Regulation (EC) No 261/2004Regulation (EC) No 261/2004

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