The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has ruled that Monday's air traffic control failure, which caused cancellations and delays at Bristol Airport, counts as an "extraordinary circumstance" under passenger rights rules, meaning affected travellers are unlikely to be entitled to compensation.
In a statement issued on 21 September, the CAA said: "We consider that disruption caused by the technical issue at NATS Prestwick centre in Scotland on 21 September is likely to be considered the result of 'extraordinary circumstances' under passenger rights rules. This means that although passengers should be looked after by airlines, they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident." The regulator said the fault had "primarily impacted airports in the northern parts of the UK, but other airports have also reported disruptions," and reminded airlines of their duty to keep passengers informed and offer refunds or rerouting for cancelled flights.
National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said the disruption was caused by a "connectivity issue with part of our systems network, specific to the operation in Scotland" at its Prestwick centre, and confirmed it was unrelated to the software defect that grounded more than 2,000 flights nationwide, including at Bristol, on 8 September. Two Bristol Airport departures, an easyJet service to Barcelona and another to Nice, were cancelled on Monday morning before the fault was fixed.
The ruling has done little to calm airline anger. The BBC reported that Wizz Air said the repeat fai