Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

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Gregory Polek

The UK Civil Aviation Authority launched an enforcement action against Ryanair on Wednesday, following the airline’s failure to pay compensation to passengers under European Commission Regulation 261/2004 for flight disruptions resulting from pilot strikes over the summer.

 


Ryanair passengers have issued claims for compensation directly to the airline, but the airline rejected them, said the CAA in a statement. Passengers can and have, as allowed by UK law, escalate their complaints to AviationADR, a body approved by the CAA to provide alternative dispute resolution for passenger complaints.&nbsp;

 


Ryanair has since informed the CAA that it has ended its agreement with AviationADR. As the CAA said at the time of the industrial action, the strikes did not amount to “extraordinary circumstances” and therefore weren’t exempt from passenger compensation rules.

 


As a result of Ryanair’s action, passengers with an existing claim will now have to await the outcome of the CAA’s enforcement action.

 


For its part, Ryanair points to rulings in three European countries that strikes at airlines based there did, in fact, constitute extraordinary circumstances. “Courts in Germany, Spain, and Italy have already ruled that strikes are an “extraordinary circumstance” and EU261 compensation does not apply,” said Ryanair in a statement to AIN. “We expect the UK CAA and courts will follow this precedent.”

 


Ryanair also cited a research note from Irish investment banking firm Goodbody highlighting those rulings. “We note the Barcelona Court decision in October, which noted no compensation is due to customers whose flights are canceled due to an internal strike,” said Goodbody. “Similarly, in the past, Lufthansa [was] not obliged to pay EU261 allowances when pilots&nbsp;[struck] for 15 days. Further to the UK CAA action against Ryanair, we note no action was taken against British Airways during its staff strikes last year."

 


However, Goodbody also noted that the UK enforcement action would overshadow the positive development on Tuesday regarding a new agreement reached between Ryanair and the VC pilots union in Germany. The sides expect to sign a four-year labor agreement by the end of March, until which time the pilots have agreed not to strike.&nbsp;

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