KL

Thank you for your emails, dated 22nd July 2014 and 15th August 2014, both regarding flight KL1170 from Helsinki to Amsterdam on 15th December 2013. Firstly, please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in responding to you. This has been caused by recent extreme weather conditions at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, leading to an increase in the number of passengers contacting us.

As a valued Flying Blue customer, I accept that you should not have normally needed to wait this long for a reply and for this I can only give you our apologies.

Having investigated your case, I was extremely sorry to learn that the delay of KL1170 disrupted your onward journey to Dublin aboard an Aer Lingus service.

I have researched the flight delay thoroughly and have discovered that the delay of this flight was caused by Air Traffic Control decisions made while the aircraft was in the air. Decisions made by Air Traffic Control impacting the departure and arrival time of a flight may affect our operations and result in unavoidable delays.

Delays will always inconvenience our passengers, a fact of which we are very much aware. And as such, we do everything possible to limit these occurrences. I am pleased to see you were given hotel accommodation by our staff at Amsterdam Schiphol airport.

There are extraordinary circumstances, such as decisions made by Air Traffic Control, which affect our operations and result in unavoidable delays and cancellations. Because of the unforeseen nature of these circumstances, they are considered to be beyond our control.

Although these circumstances have an unpredictable factor, we will do our utmost to keep our passengers informed as accurately as we can.

I note you have made a claim for compensation under the EC261/2004 regulations. I must inform you that delays caused by Air Traffic Control decisions are considered circumstances beyond the airline’s control and therefore our legal team has advised that compensation is not payable in this situation under the regulations currently in force.

However, I have made the personal decision to extend a goodwill gesture in the form of 10,000 Flying Blue award miles, to be credited to your account shortly. I hope that you will graciously accept these miles as a token of our appreciation of your loyalty to KLM and also to apologise for the extraordinary circumstances which led to the delay you experienced.

Thank you for placing your trust in KLM. We hope to welcome you on board again soon.