'Please make this 13-hour flight even longer, captain'

Simon Calder explains how air passengers’ rights rules have unintended consequences, including delaying more planes

- Simon Calder

Unlike most of the other 450 passengers booked aboard British Airways flight BA11 from London Heathrow to Singapore on 30 January, I was carrying only cabin baggage. The Airbus A380 “SuperJumbo” was due to fly around 450 of us to the tropics.

When, 80 minutes before the scheduled departure, a text message arrived saying the flight was cancelled for technical reasons, I had a head start.

No need to join the throng waiting forlornly to collect their checked luggage from Baggage Reclaim 10. Instead, I could open discussions with ticketing staff at Terminal 5 about how BA planned to respond in accordance with air passengers’ rights rules.

The collection of rules known as EU261 has been in force for 20 years. The legislation has two parts:

A duty of care in the event of long delays or cancellations, whatever the cause: meals, hotels and alternative transportation as appropriate Payment of hundreds of pounds in compensation for cancellations and delays of three hours or more when the airline is responsible

When a friendly member of British Airways ground staff told me I had been rebooked on Qatar Airways via Doha, I gently reminded him that I had booked a nonstop flight and wished to exercise my right to “rerouting under comparable transport conditions at the earliest opportunity”.