Winter Weather Flight Delays: Can You Still Claim?
Snow, ice, and storms cause thousands of winter flight delays every year. Here's when winter weather actually exempts an airline from paying, and when it doesn't.
Winter brings a spike in flight delays across the UK, and airlines frequently blame the weather. Genuine severe weather can be a valid exemption from compensation, but it's applied more narrowly than most passengers assume.
When weather is a valid excuse
Severe, unforeseeable weather that genuinely makes it unsafe to operate, such as a major storm closing a runway or extremely low visibility, can exempt the airline from paying compensation.
When it isn't
- Routine de-icing delays, since airlines are expected to have de-icing procedures in place for winter
- Delays caused by staff shortages during bad weather, rather than the weather itself
- Knock-on delays from an earlier flight, where the weather has since cleared
- Minor weather that other airlines at the same airport operated through without delay
The airline has to prove it
The burden of proof is on the airline to show the specific weather conditions actually prevented your specific flight from operating safely, not just that weather was present somewhere in the network that day.
How to claim
Klaimly checks the real conditions and reasoning behind winter weather rejections, and challenges ones that don't hold up. Submit your flight details and we'll take it from there, for a flat 5% fee, only if we win.