FlightRepay

ANSWER · UK 261 AND EC 261

The airline says it took all reasonable measures. What does that mean?

It is the second limb of Art. 5(3), and the airline has to prove it, not assert it. The Court's standard is demanding: Eglītis requires reserve time built into the schedule in advance, the 2020 TAP judgment requires looking at re-routing on other carriers rather than only the airline's own next flight, and Germanwings requires deploying all staff, equipment and financial resources.

REVIEWED AGAINST RULE SET V6 AND THE CITED PRIMARY SOURCES · UPDATED 7 AUGUST 2026

What courts have actually required

  • Planning: resources organised in good time with a reserve, so the flight can still run once the circumstance ends (Eglītis, 2011).
  • Re-routing: all available alternatives examined, including seats on other airlines, up to the point of intolerable sacrifice for the business, which the airline must evidence (TAP, 2020).
  • Resources: everything at the carrier's disposal deployed, such as priority maintenance contracts for a quick tyre change (Germanwings, 2019).
  • Only the carrier's own measures count, for it and against it: airport and air traffic decisions are outside the test (Moens, 2019), and delay the carrier added itself, like a duplicate safety inspection, is not excused (Pešková, 2017).

The questions that test the phrase

A rejection letter that recites the phrase without stating the specific circumstance, or what was actually done, has not discharged the airline's burden. Asking in writing for the specific Art. 5(3) circumstance relied on, and for the measures taken, is exactly what the free claim letter tool's wording does.

THE JUDGMENTS BEHIND THIS ANSWER

TAP, C-74/192020Germanwings, C-501/172019Eglītis and Ratnieks, C-294/102011

SOURCES

  1. Case C-294/10 Eglītis and Ratnieks, judgment of 12 May 2011 · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026
  2. Case C-74/19 LE v Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, judgment of 11 June 2020 (ECLI:EU:C:2020:437) · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026
  3. Case C-501/17 Germanwings v Pauels, judgment of 4 April 2019 · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026

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