‘Please make this 13-hour flight even longer': how air passengers' rights rules distort behaviour

Independent

16-03-2025

Unlike most of the other 450 passengers booked aboard British Airways flight BA11 from London Heathrow to Singapore on 30 January, I was carrying only cabin baggage. The Airbus A380 'SuperJumbo' was due to fly around 450 of us to the tropics. When, 80 minutes before the scheduled departure, a text message arrived saying the flight was cancelled for technical reasons, I had a head start.
No need to join the throng waiting forlornly to collect their checked luggage from Baggage Reclaim 10. Instead, I could open discussions with ticketing staff at Terminal 5 about how BA planned to respond in accordance with air passengers' rights rules.
The collection of rules known as EU261 has been in force for 20 years. The legislation has two parts:
A duty of care in the event of long delays or cancellations, whatever the cause: meals, hotels and alternative transportation as appropriate
Payment of hundreds of pounds in compensation for cancellations and delays of three hours or more when the airline is responsible
When a friendly member of British Airways ground staff told me I had been rebooked on Qatar Airways via Doha, I gently reminded him that I had booked a nonstop flight and wished to exercise my right to 'rerouting under comparable transport conditions at the earliest opportunity'.
In the two decades since the rules were poorly drafted, nothing has been done to improve them – such as replacing the term 'rerouting'. Rerouting is something satnavs do when you miss a turn or hit heavy traffic. People understand it to mean that you choose a different way from A to B. In reality, passengers whose flights have been cancelled want to be flown on exactly the same route. In many cases, this is what happens. 'Flying to your destination' is the clear and accurate term that should be used.
The rules are currently under scrutiny – that is just a tiny part of what needs to be fixed. All too often, airlines flout their duty of care with impunity, due to the authorities' lack of enforcement. And the payouts resemble aviation bingo, governed more by luck than reason.
Back at the ticket counter, my BA friend agreed that 'comparable transport conditions at the earliest opportunity' meant a nonstop flight on the next Singapore Airlines flight from Heathrow: SQ319, due to arrive 95 minutes after the original departure.
That was the 'duty of care' half of the air passengers' rights rules in action; British Airways handed the £525 I paid for my seat to Singapore Airlines. But what about the compensation part? In the event of a long-haul cancellation, a resulting delay in arrival of two hours triggers a £260 payout; after four hours, it's £520.
Assuming the plane arrived on time, I would not qualify. But an unexplained half-hour hold-up in departure put that £260 into play. If it stayed that way, my delay in arrival would be five minutes over the two-hour line.
Airlines routinely 'pad' schedules, allowing extra time in order to protect connections – crucial at a hub like Singapore. So I imagined much of the delay would be made up. But nearing the city state, air-traffic controllers routed the plane on an extended approach.
Touchdown was an hour and 52 minutes after my BA plane had been due to arrive – now it was all down to the crew and the length of the taxi to the gate. Please extend this 13-hour flight just a bit more, I said to myself.
We pulled up dead on two hours, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It would take at least one minute to open the first door, which is the moment deemed to be the arrival time under the EU261 regulations.
British Airways initially rejected my claim, saying the landing time was under two hours late, but came round and handed over almost half the fare I had paid.
I have been on enough delayed flights where no compensation has been paid to be grateful for the payout. But was my inconvenience really worth £130 per hour? No. Compensation running into hundreds of pounds for relatively minor disruption is barmy.
For delays, cash payouts kick in three hours behind schedule. For European flights, you get the same whether the delay is 180 minutes or 24 hours. And that cliff edge has resulted, I contend, in more flights being delayed.
For example, I was waiting in Tirana for a Wizz Air flight to Beauvais in northern France. According to Flightradar24, the aircraft intended for my flight was all on schedule. Suddenly, the plane was assigned to a different route from the Albanian capital. The reason: another Wizz Air flight would have operated over three hours late.
Rather than take the potential hit of perhaps £60,000 in EU261 claims, the airline shuffled the fleet – reducing the delay for that flight. Ours was 90 minutes late, which meant two flights were delayed rather than just one. The existing rules encourage consumer-unfriendly behaviour; they can't change soon enough.
Simon Calder, also known as The Man Who Pays His Way, has been writing about travel for The Independent since 1994. In his weekly opinion column, he explores a key travel issue – and what it means for you.