My flight is cancelled the day before departure

My flight is cancelled the day before departure

"I was due to take the Easyjet flight to Tel Aviv on 8 July, but was informed by e-mail the day before that it had been cancelled because a large number of pro-Palestinian activists were due to arrive at Ben Guiron airport on the same day. This can happen during a strike or when a volcano erupts. But what happens in this case? Can I get my money back?

Carol, Chêne-Bougeries

In the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, various pro-Palestinian associations had apparently organised an operation called "Welcome to Palestine", which was supposed to bring together hundreds of activists on Friday 8 July at Tel Aviv airport, to travel to the Palestinian territories, to which Israel controls all access. Having been labelled "hooligans" by Israeli Public Security, their arrival was blocked by Israel, which dissuaded several airlines from boarding them in the first place. Most flights were delayed and some airlines cancelled them.

The international conventions governing air transport do not deal with refunds in the event of cancellation. You therefore need to look at the airline's general terms and conditions of carriage (accepted by the customer when buying the ticket on the internet, for example), given that a contract of carriage was concluded between Easyjet and yourself when you booked your plane ticket. According to these, a flight may be cancelled in the event of so-called "extraordinary" circumstances, such as the weather, riots, terrorist alerts, for safety reasons, in the event of a strike or due to unexpected flight safety defects. Easyjet offers you several compensation options, including re-routing to the final destination at the earliest possible opportunity or at a later date, or reimbursement of the fare paid.

If Easyjet cancels a flight for any other reason and considers such action necessary and beyond its control, additional compensation of €250 or €400, depending on the length of the flight, must be paid to the passenger who was not informed of the cancellation 2 weeks in advance, unless a reasonable alternative solution is offered. In this case, since the riots did not affect Geneva airport and Ben Guiron airport was not closed, it seems that the flight could have gone ahead and that Easyjet could have found a less radical solution than cancelling the flight, for example by inviting airport security to carry out detailed checks on the identity of its passengers. You should therefore be able to claim reimbursement of your ticket and additional compensation from the airline, which will probably consider your case sympathetically in the circumstances.

Clarification regarding the column "My flight is cancelled the day before departure" published on 16 July 2011

Easyjet would like to point out that the flight scheduled for Friday 8 July 2011 from Geneva to Tel Aviv did in fact take place and that only the passengers banned from Israeli territory had their flight cancelled the day before. In accordance with the general conditions set out in this article, which you can consult at http://www.solutionsavocats.ch/chroniques-fr.php, these passengers have been fully and immediately reimbursed by Easyjet.