New aviation industry ombudsman & customer rights charter in Australia

[LondonAussie]

Or perhaps the law should require ‘rerouting at the earliest opportunity’, even if that is on another airline?

This is actually the best part of the EU regulation, though it's often overshadowed by compensation. The airline is responsible to get you to your final destination and must cover any expenses such as flights on another airline. They must also cover all your meal and accommodation costs until they get you there.

EU261 delay compensation does not apply until 3 hrs. So a 2:59hr (arrival) delay has no compensation.
And nothing for extraordinary delay (like ATC as happens at SYD more than it should = AU fed govt control/problem)

Correct, EU compensation payments aren't provided for delays caused by extraordinary circumstances, but the 'duty of care' provisions and expense reimbursements (meals, accommodation, alternative transport) apply to all delays and cancellations regardless of the cause.

Everybody gets distracted and obsessed by the compensation payments and misses the bigger picture.

 

[CMA222]

An interesting comment in the ABC (Australia) news on-line this morning regarding the BA mayday incident as SYD airport:

A British Airways spokesman said passengers were entitled to apply for compensation due to the delays, under the airline's legal obligations.

Not only are BA acknowledging compensation is available, and advising the passengers, they also rebooked most passengers on other carriers, the same day, to ensure they were delayed for the minimum amount of time. This is the compensation system and delay obligations working as intended by UK261. What will Aust get under the proposed new regime ?

If it was QF they would have delayed everyone, probably for 24 hours, and started the PR machine rolling to deny any compensation as per their T's and C's.