Documented case · Regulation (EC) No 261/2004
The airline is not to blame for a volcanic eruption. It is answerable for how it treated its passengers afterwards. This is the documented course of one cancelled flight — and what European law entitles you to when the same happens to you.
8 August 2026 · W4 6534 · Prague → Catania
Credit towards buying further tickets was uploaded to the account automatically. The airline justified this on the grounds that the passenger had not selected another option before the scheduled time of departure. We only learned that the flight had been cancelled two hours and sixteen minutes after that moment.
In an extraordinary circumstance — a volcano, closed airspace, extreme weather — no right to €250–600 in compensation arises. That is correct and nobody disputes it.
But after the Icelandic eruption of 2010 the Court of Justice of the EU held that the duty to carry the passenger to their destination and to look after them applies even then, with no limit in time or money. That is precisely the moment at which a passenger is most dependent on the airline.
Article 8 gives the passenger the choice between a refund and carriage to the final destination at the earliest opportunity, under comparable transport conditions.
Under the European Commission's interpretative guidelines the airline must also consider flights operated by other carriers, and other modes of transport. If it flies you to a different airport in the same region, it also pays for the transfer from it.
A refund of the ticket price is paid in money within seven days. A voucher or credit is permissible only with the passenger's signed agreement — that is, only where you expressly choose it.
Credit uploaded automatically because you “did not respond” does not meet that condition.
Article 15 provides that obligations towards passengers may not be limited or waived. Accepting a remedy is therefore not a settlement.
A passenger who was not properly informed of their rights, and accepted less for that reason, may still claim the difference afterwards.
After the cancellation, three options were offered: rebook onto another flight with the same carrier, accept credit, or request a refund. Rerouting with a different airline, or to another Sicilian airport, was not offered — not in the e-mail, not in the booking system, and not in the flight-change interface.
“rebook to another flight operated by Wizz Air on the same or a comparable route”
— airline e-mail, 8 August 2026, 11:41
“Your options are the following: rebook your flight, or request refund.”
— booking overview in the airline's app
The “comparable route” on offer was empty. For Palermo the airline's booking system showed no date at all in August, the first being in September. The flight on 11 August was sold out. The nearest available capacity was 15 August — seven days after the scheduled departure, half of a two-week holiday.
Other airlines, meanwhile, were flying into the destination region the very next day: Prague–Catania from CZK 3,009 (about €120), Prague–Palermo from CZK 3,462 (about €140). Some of them for less than the airline was offering to refund for the outbound leg alone.
Because it appeared that no other option existed, the onward accommodation and car-hire bookings were cancelled to limit the penalties. Had we been told that the cost of reaching the destination was the airline's to bear, the trip would not have been called off.
Save the airline's e-mails as PDF. Photograph what the app offers you, which dates are available, and what competitors are charging. In a few days it will be gone and you will not be able to reconstruct it.
Either rerouting at the earliest opportunity — expressly including flights operated by other carriers and alternative airports under Article 8(3) — or a refund of the price in money to the original means of payment. Not by phone. In writing, dated.
If credit is uploaded to your account automatically, write that you did not request it and do not consent to it. Apply for conversion into money, but with your reservation of rights on the record.
It is free and takes fifteen minutes. Every EU country designates a National Enforcement Body for Regulation 261/2004; the one that handles your case is normally the body of the country you departed from. Where the airline is licensed in a different country — this carrier is licensed in Malta, so Transport Malta — you can file there in parallel. One complaint is an incident. Fifty complaints are a systemic problem the regulator has to deal with.
You are not entitled to financial compensation under Article 7. Your right to carriage to your final destination, to care while you wait, and to a refund of the ticket price remains in full. An extraordinary circumstance relieves the airline of the duty to pay compensation, not of the duty to take you where it sold you a ticket to.
The duty under Article 8 is to arrange carriage to the destination “at the earliest opportunity”. It is an obligation of result, not of means. Under the European Commission's interpretative guidelines the airline must also consider flights operated by other carriers and other modes of transport. That the airline has no agreement with a competitor is its operational problem, not a statutory exemption.
No. The Regulation places the duty to arrange rerouting on the operating air carrier. The passenger is not obliged to search for connections, nor to fund them out of their own pocket. Buying your own ticket and then claiming reimbursement is a fallback for where the airline fails in its duty — not the primary route.
Only with your signed agreement. Under Article 8(1)(a) a refund is paid in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank order or cheque, within seven days. A voucher is an exception conditional on prior agreement — not a default position you have to opt out of.
No. Article 12 expressly preserves the right to further compensation under national law, and Article 15 provides that rights under the Regulation cannot be waived or limited. It is nonetheless advisable to state the reservation expressly in your request.
First a written complaint to the airline — without one the authorities will not take the case up. Then the National Enforcement Body of the country you departed from, and in parallel the body in the country where the airline is licensed. For cross-border cases the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) handles out-of-court settlement. Claims up to €5,000 can be pursued under the European Small Claims Procedure — in writing, on a form, without a lawyer.