Am I entitled to compensation for a cancelled flight within the EU if the arrival airport is partly/fully closed during bad weather?

Question

On last Monday, 2020-02-10 I had a bokking for the following flights:

SK1045 Kiruna 13:50 - Stockholm 15:30
LH2419 Stockholm 18:30 - Munich 20:40

(Apparently) Due to bad weather caused by storm Sabine/Ciara (for those outside Germany) the second leg got cancelled and I got rebooked in the following way from Stockholm:

LH807 Stockholm 16:25 - Frankfurt 18:30
LH118 Frankfurt 19:15 - Munich 20:10

After arriving in Frankfurt the final leg to Munich also got cancelled, as well as every other flights to MUC on that day.

I can see that most flights to MUC from anywhere else during that timeframe got cancelled as well, but I wonder if actually the whole airport was closed or did some flights get through. Is there a website where I could check this? How do I know whether the cancellation is Lufthansa's "fault" or was directed by the authorities?

If the airport was in fact not totally closed, am I entitled to compensation?

Answer 1

TL;DR You won't get compensation in this particular case. But the airline still has to get you home and care for you.

You are not entitled to compensation if the cancellation is cause by "extraordinary circumstances", and bad weather is one of that circumstances. And it is generally enough that the weather (which is outside the airline's control) caused the cancellation; and it is not necessary that the whole airport was closed.

You are still entitled to the "right of care" under the EU regulation. This means the airline has to book you onto another flight to your destination if you want that. Until you can take that flight, the airline needs to "care for you" by providing meals, refreshments and a hotel if necessary.

The authorities do not usually tell airlines to cancel individual flights; they can close, or restrict, airports and regions of airspace. The airline will have to decide if they can operate the flight under the given circumstances.

Of course you cannot be 100% sure what the reason for the cancellation was. There are no independent websites that tell you the reason either; but you can ask the airline for proof if they don't want to pay compensation. But in this case the reason is pretty obvious: All other flights were cancelled as well, and it was clearly weather-related.

You could give the case to a "flight rights enforcement web site", but they will probably just refuse to take it. The chances are just too slim.

If you really want something, you can still write to Lufthansa and hope that they give you a voucher for the next booking, or award you some extra loyalty miles, as a good-will gesture.