A flight strike is not automatically an extraordinary circumstance under EU Regulation 261/2004 . If the airline's own staff strike — cabin crew or pilots — it normally counts as within the airline's control, so it is not an extraordinary circumstance and you are entitled to compensation of €250, €400 or €600. If air traffic control (in Poland: PANSA, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency) or airport ground staff strike, it usually counts as an extraordinary circumstance and no fixed compensation is paid — although the duty of care (meals, drinks, hotel) survives in every case. The whole question comes down to one line: who is striking? In Poland, complaints route to the Rzecznik Praw Pasażerów (RPP) at the ULC (Urząd Lotnictwa Cywilnego), civil claims go to the Sąd Rejonowy, and the prescription period under Article 118 of the Polish Civil Code is ten years. Polish version: strajk a odszkodowanie za lot .
What "extraordinary circumstance" means — in short
EU 261 normally gives passengers the right to €250–€600 in compensation when a flight is cancelled or delayed at the final destination by more than three hours. The Court of Justice of the EU established that three-hour threshold in Sturgeon (joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009), treating the fixed compensation as an autonomous remedy that does not depend on actual financial loss. But the regulation carves out one exception: the airline does not pay if the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances beyond its control — events the carrier could not have avoided even if it had taken every reasonable measure. Extreme weather, security threats and certain ATC events are the textbook examples.
The term is to be interpreted narrowly. It is an exception, not a default — so it is not a label an airline can stick on any disruption. For strikes, the narrow reading turns the question from "was there a strike?" into "did the strike lie within the airline's control or outside it?" That is the only question that matters, and the answer turns on the identity of the strikers.
The decisive line: the airline's own people, or someone else's
This single table summarises Polish and EU practice. Read each row and ask: who walked off the job?
| Type of strike | Within the airline's control? | Extraordinary circumstance? | Right to €250–€600? |
|---|---|---|---|
| The airline's own cabin crew (LOT, Ryanair, Wizz Air staff) | Yes, normally | No | Yes, usually |
| The airline's own pilots | Yes, normally | No | Yes, usually |
| Air traffic control (PANSA in Poland, DSNA in France, etc.) | No | Yes, usually | No, usually not |
| Airport ground or security staff (handling, baggage) | No | Yes, usually | No, usually not |
| A subcontractor's staff (catering, cleaning) | Assessed case by case | Unclear | Depends on the circumstances |
The reasoning is simple. When the airline's own staff strike, the dispute is about the carrier's own employment terms, its own negotiations and its own management decisions. That is part of running an airline — a normal business risk the carrier itself controls. When PANSA controllers or Warsaw Chopin ground staff strike, the airline is hit by something someone else triggered, much like bad weather. The dividing line is not "strike" versus "no strike"; it is "ours" versus "theirs".
The airline's own staff strike — not an extraordinary circumstance
The clearest legal source on this point is the CJEU's judgment in Krüsemann and Others (C-195/17, 2018). The background was sharp: staff at the airline TUIfly stayed home en masse — calling in sick — in protest after the company announced a restructuring. It was a wildcat strike: spontaneous, not formally called by a union. TUIfly argued before the German courts that this was an extraordinary circumstance beyond its control.
The Court of Justice said no. A staff dispute rooted in the airline's own decisions — here a restructuring announcement — belongs to the normal exercise of an air carrier's activity and lies within its control. Therefore: no extraordinary circumstance, and the passengers were entitled to compensation. The ruling is short, clear, and routinely applied by the Sąd Rejonowy in Warsaw and Kraków when Polish passengers sue LOT, Ryanair or Wizz Air over crew strikes.
What that means in practice: if a carrier rejects your claim and labels its own pilots' or cabin crew's strike "an extraordinary circumstance", the rejection runs against settled EU case law. The question of announced, union-called strikes — as distinct from wildcat ones — is legally more contested in the academic literature, but the main rule from Krüsemann still carries weight in Polish judicial practice: the carrier's own labour dispute is the carrier's own responsibility. The line also sits inside the broader principle from Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07, 2008): events that are inherent in the normal exercise of the airline's business — technical faults, staff arrangements — are not extraordinary, full stop.
If your LOT flight from Warsaw was cancelled because of a pilot strike, your claim is strong. See our companion guide on cancelled flight compensation in Poland for the full €250–€400–€600 breakdown by distance band.
Check what compensation you are owed after a strike — free assessment
Air traffic control or airport strikes — usually extraordinary
When it is air traffic control that strikes — a PANSA strike in Polish airspace, a DSNA strike in France, an Italian ENAV strike — or the airport's own staff, the picture flips. The airline does not employ the strikers and does not control the dispute. Such a strike normally counts as an extraordinary circumstance, and the fixed €250–€600 falls away. The same reasoning extends to airport security personnel and ground handling crews who do not belong to the airline.
But "extraordinary" is not a blank cheque. The airline must still prove it did everything reasonable to avoid your particular departure being disrupted. A controllers' strike in one country does not automatically wipe out a flight that could have been routed around the affected airspace. And if a flight is cancelled several days after the strike has ended, the causal link between the strike and your cancellation becomes very difficult for the carrier to demonstrate.
That nuance matters in Poland. A French ATC strike that wipes out a Warsaw–Paris LOT flight on the same day is almost certainly a valid extraordinary circumstance. The same strike still being used to justify a cancellation seventy-two hours later, when Paris-bound traffic has resumed, is not — and the Sąd Rejonowy will look for a documented timeline. Demand a written justification with timestamps; airlines that cannot produce one routinely lose.
"An event beyond our control" — when the stock rejection is not enough
It is worth recognising the language carriers use. When they say no, the same phrasings keep coming back — extraordinary circumstances, force majeure, and, word for word from a rejection one Warsaw passenger shared with us, "the compensation you are claiming does not apply because the delay was caused by an event beyond our control."
The problem is not the words themselves. The problem is that they are used as a catch-all clause — a stock answer that does not distinguish between types of strike. A rejection that only says "strike = beyond our control", without naming which strike it was, whose staff walked off, and why your particular departure could not be saved, has not made the assessment the law requires. The burden of proof under EU 261 sits squarely on the carrier, not on you.
That gives you a clear next step. Reply in writing and ask the airline to be specific: which strike, whose staff, when it started and ended, and what reasonable measures it took to operate your flight. If the answer is vague or the strike was by the airline's own crew, you have grounds to dispute the rejection. From there the Polish enforcement route opens up:
- Rzecznik Praw Pasażerów (RPP) at the ULC — a free administrative complaint that ends in a formal opinion against the airline. The opinion is non-binding, but it carries weight in court and pressures the carrier to settle.
- European ODR platform — online dispute resolution, free but slow.
- Sąd Rejonowy — a civil lawsuit with jurisdiction confirmed by the CJEU's ruling in where to sue an airline practice (passenger may sue at the airport of departure or arrival, in addition to the airline's seat). The court fee for a claim under €600 is roughly PLN 30–100, and the case is typically handled in the simplified procedure (postępowanie uproszczone).
You have ten years to do all of this. The CJEU confirmed in Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2013) that national prescription periods govern EU 261 claims; Poland applies the general civil prescription rule from Article 118 of the Civil Code (Kodeks cywilny), which is ten years. So a passenger whose LOT flight was cancelled by a strike in June 2026 has until June 2036 to file at the Sąd Rejonowy — far longer than the two- or three-year limits in most western European countries.
The duty of care applies even with a valid extraordinary circumstance
One thing does not change just because the strike really was an extraordinary circumstance: the duty of care under Article 9 EU 261. Even when the right to the €250–€600 falls away, the airline's obligation to look after you remains in full — meals and drinks in reasonable relation to the waiting time, two phone calls or emails, and, where needed, a hotel and transport between airport and hotel while you wait.
The Court of Justice nailed this point down in McDonagh (C-12/11, 2013), decided in the aftermath of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash crisis. McDonagh stood for the principle that the duty of care has no upper time limit and no upper monetary limit — it applies regardless of how exceptional the event is. So an ATC strike that grounds you in Warsaw for three nights removes the fixed compensation but does not remove the obligation to feed and house you. That is often the only right left in a clear ATC-strike case, and it is worth claiming.
Keep every receipt if you have to arrange meals or accommodation yourself; reimbursement is enforceable through the RPP and, if needed, the Sąd Rejonowy. Practical guidance: see our companion article on the right to care — meals, drinks and hotel , which lays out reasonable amounts the Polish administrative practice accepts.
This is not legal advice — and announced strikes are still contested
This page is based on EU 261, settled CJEU case law and Polish enforcement practice — but legal-expert review has not yet been carried out on this revision. For advice on your individual case, contact the Rzecznik Praw Pasażerów (RPP) at the ULC in Warsaw, which supervises EU 261 enforcement in Poland and answers passenger queries free of charge.
Strike cases are assessed individually, and one question remains genuinely contested across EU member states: how to treat an announced, union-called strike by the airline's own staff, where the carrier had time to take mitigating measures. The wildcat-strike rule from Krüsemann is settled. The announced-strike line is being shaped case by case by national courts; some have held that even an announced crew strike is not extraordinary (consistent with Krüsemann), while a minority have allowed it as a partial defence. The Sąd Rejonowy in Poland has, in practice, leaned toward the Krüsemann reading. We update this page when the CJEU, EUR-Lex or the ULC publishes anything new.
Sources and further reading
- EUR-Lex — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (consolidated text)
- Court of Justice of the EU — Krüsemann and Others, C-195/17 (2018) — wildcat strike among an airline's own staff is not an extraordinary circumstance
- Court of Justice of the EU — Wallentin-Hermann, C-549/07 (2008) — events inherent in normal carrier operation are not extraordinary
- Court of Justice of the EU — Sturgeon, C-402/07 and C-432/07 (2009) — the autonomous nature of fixed compensation
- Court of Justice of the EU — Cuadrench Moré, C-139/11 (2013) — national prescription periods apply to EU 261
- Court of Justice of the EU — McDonagh, C-12/11 (2013) — duty of care has no upper limit
- Urząd Lotnictwa Cywilnego — Rzecznik Praw Pasażerów — the Polish supervisory authority
If you want to know what your specific strike case may be worth, our page on cancelled flight compensation walks through the €250–€400–€600 distance bands. For the practical claim mechanics — DIY versus a service — see claim yourself or use a service .