Can I claim when the airline's own staff go on strike?

Two judgments, one direction of travel

Krüsemann concerned a wildcat stoppage at TUIfly in October 2016, where sickness notifications jumped from about 10 percent to as much as 89 percent after a surprise restructuring announcement. The Court held the airline could not rely on a disruption its own decision provoked.

Airhelp v SAS concerned the opposite situation: a fully lawful pilots' strike in April 2019, called by a union with proper notice during collective bargaining. The Grand Chamber still held it was not extraordinary.

Why lawfulness did not save the airline

• Collective bargaining is a foreseeable part of running an airline, so the carrier can plan for it.
• The dispute is between the carrier and its own workers, which puts the resolution inside the business.
• The regulation asks where the cause sits, not whether the conduct was authorised.

What airlines argue instead

After 2021 the common line is that the strike was called at short notice, or that the schedule could not have been rebuilt in time. Those are arguments about all reasonable measures under Art. 5(3), which the carrier has to evidence for the specific flight.

THE JUDGMENTS BEHIND THIS ANSWER

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