Compensation for diverted flight

When we board a flight, we expect to land at our destination. Unless we're traveling for work while dreaming of a vacation in Costa Rica, a diversion is never something we wish to happen. Unfortunately, diversions are becoming more frequent lately, and they are not always due to emergencies during the flight.

First things first, what is a diversion?

A diversion occurs when the aircraft scheduled to land at one airport, such as Venice, lands instead at another, like Bologna. Usually, diversions take passengers to the closest available airport with a functional runway and proper landing facilities. To be fair, diversions are undesirable events for both passengers and airlines. They often trigger a chain effect, impacting all subsequent scheduled flights.

Why do diversions happen?

The reason for a diversion is crucial to determining eligibility for compensation. Cases may vary, and so far, we have handled diversions due to:

• Medical emergency
• Death of a passenger on board
• Technical problem with the aircraft
• Bird strike
• Curfew hours at the arrival airport
• Bad weather at the arrival airport
• Runway incident at the arrival airport
• Airport/ATC staff strike
• Crew change needed during the flight
• Documents or aircraft parts to be collected at an airport en route to the final destination
• Terrorist attack or bomb threat at the arrival airport
• Unruly passengers on board
• Airspace closed due to a presidential flight landing
• Aircraft needing to land at a nearby airport with technical facilities for maintenance work

As you can see, there are many reasons for diversions. Some make your flight eligible for compensation, while others exempt the airlines from liability. Diversion claims require special attention and thorough investigation. This usually requires additional documents from the airlines, which they often refuse to provide unless required by a judge.

If you were on a diverted flight and the airline refused to pay compensation, register your claim here for a second check. This is free for you and easy for us. We have an extensive database starting from 2020 with information about diversions and their reasons.

What should you do if your flight was diverted?

Regardless of the reason for the diversion, the airline must provide you with transfer at no cost to the originally booked destination. However, this doesn't always happen in practice. If you are stranded at the diversion airport and the airline does not offer a transfer, make your own transfer arrangements and keep the receipts. This can include bus/train tickets, taxi receipts, or hotel bookings if no transport is available due to late arrival time. These expenses can be fully reimbursed by the airline within a reasonable amount.

Diversion cases won in court

It often happens that the airline rejects a diversion compensation claim by referring to airport limitations at the arrival airport. For instance, a Wizzair flight scheduled to land in Bologna landed in Venice Marco Polo. Wizzair denied compensation, citing airport limitations. We disputed this in court, proving it was actually due to curfew hours which the airline did not respect, causing them to miss the assigned landing slot and divert to the closest available airport. We won the lawsuit, the passengers received their legal compensation, and we gained one more happy customer. If you are not satisfied with the resolution offered by the airline, submit your claim here. We will explain in detail what happened to your flight and restart the claim if needed.