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As a poster said above, it was all decided by the Alitalia case a good few years ago. I've dealt with a few of these now for friends, family, clients and myself. All the same- blank refusal to pay, until they are met with legal proceedings. Clearly a standard tactic by most on the basis that most people will go away. They also fail in their duties at the time of the delay to advise people as to their rights to compensation.
The airlines have been terrible- fighting the claims when the precedent was pretty clear. A few years ago I was going with my family to the USA. We had a 14 hour delay because the plane was broken down. With young children, we were effectively up and awake for 28 hours non stop, and missed the first day of our holiday, and a wasted hotel. Then had to pay for another hotel at the US airport for 2 hours sleep before hitting the road. The airline refused to pay. I issued, they instructed a well known CIty firm who advised them to pay straight away. They had even refused to pay me after the Civil Aviation Authority had told them to pay.
If I contract to supply my clients a service and fail to supply it, then they are quite entitled to compensation. Because my IT system broke down and was not functioning is no defence- why should the airline industry be any different? As someone stated, they are already factoring in the compensation payments into their charges.
The CAA is also a joke- inundated with claims, no teeth and this rather poor attempt to get together with other similar organisations in Europe to be judge and jury and define what is extraordinary circumstances themselves- wrongly ruling out mechanical defects such as these. The airlines have been attaching this document the CAA and its brethren produced to defences! The CAA are meant to protect the public as a public body, and they should have actually looked at the legal precedent for interpretation of the Regulation, and taken decent legal advice rather than producing a legally incorrect document like they did. How many thousands of legitimate claims have 'gone away' because the CAA document has been relied upon by the airlines- the CAA must explain why it acted like it did.
Fortunately, the C of A were not swayed by the CAA's efforts.