The Air Passenger Rights Ordinance also covers a pilot's strike: If a flight is canceled due to an announced strike by airline employees or is significantly delayed, the customer can be entitled to compensation.
The European Court of Justice announced today after a judgment. The airline cannot argue that such a strike is an "exceptional circumstance", especially if it complies with applicable law. Rather, the protest action should be qualified as normal business activity, according to the ECJ.
An extraordinary circumstance within the meaning of the Air Passenger Rights Regulation exists if the events, by their nature or cause, are not part of the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and are not actually “controllable”.
A dispute from Scandinavia was pending with the highest judicial body of the EU. A passenger wants an airline compensation of 250 euros because a flight from Malmö to Stockholm scheduled for April 2019 was canceled on the same day due to a pilots strike in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The competent Swedish court asked the ECJ to interpret the relevant regulation.
In its Opinion, the responsible ECJ Advocate General took the view that a strike organized by trade unions was an exceptional circumstance - Aviation.Direct reported. But: The judges do not have to follow the Advocate General in their judgment and can decide otherwise, as was done in the present case.
and 