At least 50 flights to and from Brussels airport scheduled for Wednesday have been cancelled. Six of them are serving London Heathrow and Manchester airports.
The grounded departures are a result of the disarray on Tuesday night as suspected drone sightings closed Belgium’s biggest airport.
Starting early on Tuesday evening, at least 36 inbound flights were diverted to 10 different airports across Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany. Passengers on Brussels Airlines from Heathrow landed at Ostend on the Belgian coast. Three flights returned their starting points in Frankfurt, Helsinki and Madrid.
More than 10,000 passengers have been affected by the latest suspected drone incident at a major European airport.
The defence minister Theo Francken told public broadcaster RTBF the incident appeared to be carried out by professionals intent on destabilising the country.
The disruption has raised questions about passengers’ rights. These are the key questions and answers.
If my flight is diverted due to a drone, what are my rights?
The airline must get you to your destination as soon as possible. In the case of diversions to Ostend, Charleroi, Amsterdam, Cologne, Lille and Paris CDG, either the airline will arrange coaches or you can take a train to Brussels and send the airline the bill.
Many of the diversions were late at night, so you should also expect a hotel room – either arranged by the airline or paid by you and later reclaimed.
What about Wednesday’s cancellations at Brussels airport?
If you are booked to fly from an EU or UK airport, and your flight is cancelled, the carrier must provide a suitable flight as soon as possible – on any airline that has seats available. Unless the cancelling carrier has an alternative flight available on the same day, it must enable you to fly on a rival. (Having said that, a number of airlines are reticent about revealing this aspect of your rights.)
For example, if you were booked from Manchester to Brussels and onwards to Rome on Brussels Airlines, the carrier must find a way of getting you to the Italian capital – such as Ryanair’s flight to Ciampino airport, even if it costs much more than the original.
While you wait to be flown to your destination, the carrier must provide meals as appropriate and, if necessary, a hotel room.
In practice, when thousands of passengers are stranded in a case of mass disruption, the airlines leave it to their customers to find accommodation. When flights are diverted – including to another country, as we have seen during drone disruption – the airline is responsible for providing care while getting passengers to their final destination, except in the rare case that it is a non-EU/UK carrier flying from outside Europe – such as last night’s Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul, which ended up in Cologne.
Whatever the cause of disruption, the carriers must pick up the tab. Fire cutting power to London Heathrow? French air-traffic controllers walking out? Drones dispatched by an unknown assailant? Every time, the airline cannot dodge its obligations, which are open-ended.
Will I get cash compensation on top?
No, because the airlines can demonstrate the event was way beyond their control. In any event, the suspected drone disruption will cost the carriers collectively millions of pounds in care costs and lost revenue (for example from today’s grounded flights).
European airlines loathe these regulations, known as EC261. But with incidents of flight disruption becoming more frequent, the financial burden is increasing. Travellers ultimately pay the price through higher fares, and I believe we will soon see changes to reduce rights – perhaps by capping the cost or length of time for which care must be provided.
Meanwhile, your travel insurance may offer some modest payment for a long delay reaching your final destination.
Read more: My flight cancellation revealed how complicated claiming compensation can be
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