My flight was cancelled due to the Crowdstrike IT outage – can I claim compensation?

Over 700 flights to, from and within the UK were cancelled by dozens of airlines between Friday 19 and Sunday 21 July.

Problems began at dawn on Friday when the CrowdStrike IT update failure knocked out key airport and airline systems. More than 400 flights were cancelled on the day. The knock-on effects are continuing, especially for the package holiday company, Tui.

On Saturday and Sunday, there were hundreds more flight cancellations – blamed by easyJet on “a combination of staffing and capacity constraints and adverse weather”.

The airline’s chief executive Johan Lundgren said on Monday: “This cannot go on. Urgent reform alongside additional resilience and staffing need to be put into place so passengers don’t have to suffer the consequences of lengthy delays or the risk of their flight being cancelled.”

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says: “When flights are delayed and cancelled, we expect airlines to minimise the overall impact on passengers by keeping them informed, looking after them, and advising them of their rights.”

But there is still much confusion among the 100,000 passengers stranded when their flights were grounded about their exact entitlements – and what compensation, if any, they may claim.

These are the key questions and answers.

If my flight is cancelled, what must the airline do?

For passengers on UK or European airlines, or those flying from a British or EU airport, the airline’s obligations are clear under European air passengers’ rights rules.

These were introduced in 2006 and are known as EC261. They were devised to require airlines to do the right thing for their passengers. They specify the care and compensation you can expect when your plane is delayed or cancelled. After Brexit, the UK copied and pasted the same rules.

For many people the most important right is replacement transport.

Whatever the cause of a cancellation, and regardless of the amount of notice that is given, the airline must get you to your destination as soon as possible if that is what you want. The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says that means if a flight is available on the original day of travel, you must be booked on it – even if it is on a rival carrier.

The exact legal phrase is “re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity”. The term…