De-icing is not considered an extraordinary circumstance if it is a routine weather-related requirement and does not involve unusual delays.
Case Text:
AG Düsseldorf, Judgment of 18 November 2022 – 37 C 119/22
A court ordered an airline to pay a plaintiff €600 plus interest for delays resulting from a flight from Minneapolis to Düsseldorf via Amsterdam. The delay caused the passenger to miss a connecting flight. The airline argued that the delay was due to de-icing, which it considered an extraordinary circumstance. The court disagreed, stating that de-icing is a routine operation and that the airline failed to account for typical de-icing times in its schedule. The claim that this constituted an extraordinary circumstance was rejected.