An airline escapes the fixed compensation only if it proves extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Article 5(3) of Regulation 261/2004 puts that burden on the carrier, not on you. The letter below asks it to say what the cause was and show what it relies on.
[Your full name]
[Your address]
[Email]
[Phone]
[Today's date]
[Airline name] — Customer Relations / Claims
[Airline claims address or online claim form]
Re: Request for the reason for the disruption and the evidence for it
Flight [Flight number]
Route [Departure airport] to [Final destination airport]
Date of flight [Flight date]
Booking reference [Booking reference]
Your reference [Reference number]
Dear Sir or Madam,
I was a confirmed passenger on flight [Flight number] on [Flight date].
The flight was [delayed / cancelled / overbooked] and I reached my final
destination [Hours and minutes late] late. I claimed on
[Date you asked for the refund] and your answer was
[a refusal / a vague reason / no answer].
Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 relieves an operating air
carrier of the obligation to pay compensation only where it proves that
the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not
have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. The
burden of that proof rests on you. Article 5(4) places the burden of
proving whether and when I was informed on you as well.
Please therefore send me, in writing:
1. The cause of the disruption to this specific flight.
2. The evidence you rely on for that cause, including the operational
record and any technical or air traffic control report.
3. The reasonable measures you took to avoid or limit the disruption.
4. The name of the operating air carrier and the aircraft registration.
5. The date and method by which you say I was informed.
6. The written notice of my rights required by Article 14.
If you consider that no compensation is due, please state the ground and
send the material behind it. I am asking for that answer within 14 days
of the date of this letter, after which I will refer the matter to the
national enforcement body and, if necessary, to the courts.
Yours faithfully,
[Signature]
[Your full name]
How to use it
- Send it the day a refusal arrives, while the airline still has the operational record for that flight.
- Name one flight. A letter about a whole trip gets one vague answer covering all of it.
- Ask for documents, not opinions. The evidence is what a regulator and a judge weigh.
- Give 14 days and diarise the date.
- Keep the reply exactly as it arrived, headers included.
A reason is not a defence. “Operational reasons”, “a knock-on delay” and “an unforeseen technical issue” describe the airline’s day, not an extraordinary circumstance. In Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07, 2008) the Court of Justice held that a technical problem is not an extraordinary circumstance unless it stems from events not inherent in the normal exercise of the carrier’s activity and beyond its actual control. A one-line reason with nothing behind it is exactly the answer you want in the file when you escalate.
Does the airline have to tell me the cause?
Not in those words. Article 14 requires the carrier to display a notice at check-in and to hand affected passengers a written notice of the compensation and assistance rules together with the contact details of the national enforcement body. It does not oblige the airline to explain the cause of the disruption. The pressure comes from Article 5(3) instead: if it wants to avoid paying, it has to prove the cause, and it may as well do that now.
What do I do with the answer?
Check it against the flight. Weather that closed the airport, an airport-wide strike or a security incident are genuine extraordinary circumstances. A crew shortage, a late inbound aircraft on the carrier’s own rotation or an ordinary technical fault usually are not. Our extraordinary circumstances page sorts the categories, and strike claims covers the harder case of the carrier’s own staff.
What if they ignore the letter?
Silence is useful. A national enforcement body reads a file in which you asked a specific question and got nothing, and so does a court. Chase once with the follow-up letter, then send the letter before claim if the sum is worth issuing for. Nothing here needs a lawyer or a claim agency.
Send this letter even when you already suspect the answer. Airlines settle claims where the file shows a passenger who asked precisely, kept the dates and waited the stated period — and they close files that drift. The reply also tells you which claim to run: a genuine extraordinary circumstance still leaves the duty of care intact, so a refusal on compensation is rarely the end of the money.