While there are all kinds of reasons for flights to be delayed, this has to be one of the more unusual ones…
In this post:
Fuel for Saudia plane seized over unpaid debt
On Thursday, January 23, 2025, Saudia flight SV216 was scheduled to fly from Amsterdam (AMS) to Jeddah (JED). The five-year-old Boeing 787-10 with the registration code HZ-AR26 was scheduled to depart at 3:20PM, but only ended up taking off at 4:52PM. You might not think much of that delay, but it had quite the interesting backstory, as reported by Luchtvaartnieuws.
During the brief turn in Amsterdam, the aircraft’s fuel and navigation maps were seized. The reason? EUclaim, a company that helps people secure compensation for European Union flight delays, was owed €50,000 by the airline.
The European Union has strict regulations when it comes to airlines paying cash compensation for delays, in the form of the EU261 program. This incident involves a 2022 flight on Saudia, where 67 passengers had an eligible claim for this compensation. Despite several court rulings, the airline refused to pay.
As a result, the company was able to seize the aircraft’s fuel over non-payment. Fortunately the airline quickly agreed to pay (not just the compensation, but also legal fees), which is why the flight was able to depart with a delay of a bit over an hour.
This isn’t the first time that EUclaim has gone to such extreme measures to get the money it was entitled to. In 2024, the company similarly seized the fuel of a TAROM Boeing 737, over a similar incident.
I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often
There are a lot of airlines that are really bad at following European Union regulations when it comes to paying compensation. After all, that’s the whole reason that companies like EUclaim exist, where they take a cut in exchange for helping passengers get the compensation they’re entitled to (when passengers should be able to get it directly).
I am curious why these kinds of seizures only happen so rarely. Presumably it’s in a situation where a company has enough people involved in a dispute for one particular airline, for this whole process to be worthwhile? EUclaim takes a 31% cut on the compensation, and on top of that, has a €33 administrative fee. So I guess there was tens of thousands at stake for the company, especially factoring in legal fees.
I also wonder how exactly this played out on the aircraft. I have to imagine the pilots didn’t actually announce to passengers the real reason for the delay, but rather came up with something else (“we’re just working through some paperwork…”).
Furthermore, does anyone know how the seizure process works at the airport? Were people from EUclaim somehow airside, or did they hand off court documents to airport workers, and then airport workers have to break the news to the flight crew?
Bottom line
A Saudia Boeing 787 scheduled to fly from Amsterdam to Jeddah was delayed quite a bit, after the aircraft’s fuel and navigation maps were seized. This was because the airline owed a substantial amount of money to a company that helps passengers request compensation for delayed and canceled flights. Despite court rulings, the airline reportedly refused to pay.
What ultimately caused the airline to take action was a flight being prevented from leaving Amsterdam. Then the airline suddenly acted quickly…
What do you make of this Saudia seizure in Amsterdam?
They should have known that the Prophet's rules about stiffing infidels aren't law in any EU jurisdiction.
The thing is, this shouldn't even be necessary in the first place, if airlines just owned up to their obligations. Unfortunately many customer service reps are instructed to deny all claims until the customer comes with a legal challenge, which few people do. That's why these claim agencies thrive, as they can lawyer up at scale.
That being said, EU legislation stipulates that you should be able to arbitrate passenger rights claims via a local...
The thing is, this shouldn't even be necessary in the first place, if airlines just owned up to their obligations. Unfortunately many customer service reps are instructed to deny all claims until the customer comes with a legal challenge, which few people do. That's why these claim agencies thrive, as they can lawyer up at scale.
That being said, EU legislation stipulates that you should be able to arbitrate passenger rights claims via a local government agency. Not all work at the same level of effectiveness or efficiency. I have a fresh experience with the Austrian passenger rights agency, which is actually kind of awesome and was able to get my claim settled without paying any fees to middlemen. I believe there's an initiative in the European Parliament to make the process much more streamlined.
I can imagine the Monday morning meetings of several airlines where the chairman asks whether the airline he runs has any similar outstanding EU261 payments that might lead to the airline’s airplanes being grounded in EU countries.
And without joining a rather pointless discussion whether US or EU citizen have a higher net worth, it is fair to say that in the EU passengers enjoy better customer protection than in North America.
Since deregulation, the...
I can imagine the Monday morning meetings of several airlines where the chairman asks whether the airline he runs has any similar outstanding EU261 payments that might lead to the airline’s airplanes being grounded in EU countries.
And without joining a rather pointless discussion whether US or EU citizen have a higher net worth, it is fair to say that in the EU passengers enjoy better customer protection than in North America.
Since deregulation, the US airline industry has moved towards three dominating players that have significant control over prices and service levels, the former being too high and the latter being too low.
B.
This reminds me of a case a few years back. An LX flight from MUC to ZRH was severly overbooked (27 pax overbooked on a 100-seater). LX offered the EU261 by LX-vouchers, which the denied pax did not accept and called the Bavarian police. The police insisted that the captain used his corporate credit card to withdraw money from the ATM to pay out to the stranded pax. Which I think is a fair move by Bavarian police, although we got delayed by about 2 hours …
If more than 2 hours delay on arrival then the 100 would become entitled to compensation, and the airline could hardly say due to forces outside their control!
Inconceivably based
A former employee who won a court settlement against Amtrak... when Amtrak didn't pay the plaintiff had the local sheriff seize and impound a locomotive. https://trainlaw.com/additional-information/firm-articles/locomotive-seized-in-settlement/
EU261 is great. Not only does it provide genuine compensation for delays to/from the UK/EU, it encourages airlines to fly on time (certainly within the parameters of triggering compensation). Fares continue to be cheap - eg I flew Liverpool to Barcelona for £17 this week, so fears that a similar scheme in USA will push up prices are not justified.
If an EU261 regulation were to be adopted in the US, there would be a number of airline bankruptcies in short order. Maybe they would be forced to get their house in order, however not likely.
That’s odd considering the US and Saudi Arabia are going to be close allies in the near future. I’d expect a tourism boom in Saudi Arabia like Dubai/Las Vegas bling bling.
The prince pledged to do $600 billion in business with the U.S. and lower opec oil prices. When Trump rolled his eyes the Saudi prince upped the offer to $1 Trillion.
Nothing in this story has anything to do with the US.
And if this delay extended to 4 hours, would it have triggered another round of EU261 claims?
I wonder why they seize the fuel in the plane, rather than the plane itself.
My guess is that the fuel is easier to carry.
The plane may be leased and not a property of the airline.
As you said, plane is usually owned by someone other than the airline.
Also, all seizures have to be in relation to the claim value. A (used) 787 is worth millions, not tens of thousands of Euros.
The value of fuel is easy to estimate, you can easily seize a certain amount, it is easy to move/store, it is easy to sell (should the airline refuse to pay up).
The reason why...
As you said, plane is usually owned by someone other than the airline.
Also, all seizures have to be in relation to the claim value. A (used) 787 is worth millions, not tens of thousands of Euros.
The value of fuel is easy to estimate, you can easily seize a certain amount, it is easy to move/store, it is easy to sell (should the airline refuse to pay up).
The reason why this don’t happen more often is that in many jurisdictions the law would prevent it (value of claim vs. seized/obstructed property) or because you aren’t permitted to seize the means of production or it is simply a very complicated process and unless the claimed amount is in the millions it’s not worth the hassle.
@Lucky - A Dutchie here who works in passenger rights: in Holland it works with a bailiff that has a legal status (‘gerechtsdeurwaarder’). They can seize bank accounts and assets. In this case they indeed had to go the captain of the flight, to bring them the message maps/kerosine were seized. There was no EUclaim staff at the airport.
Actions like this should be the norm. The only adjustment should be that airlines refusing to pay should incur a 200% penalty. If airlines know that they’re going to pay triple if they don’t pay out punctually then there would be a lot fewer delays in compensation.
Also the penalty would cover the need for 3rd party collections like this EUClaim. Their cut should come out of the penalty and fees from the airline
Completely agree - all the shananigans would stop quickly, so it would very rarely have to actually happen.
Let’s be clear. The EU is over-regulated. That stifles innovation and causes brain drain to the US. Please, Europeans, wisen up that you’re being penny wise and pound foolish with your regulations.
US: no compensation for late flights but you have private equity and venture capital principals willing to throw millions of dollars at you so you (and they) can reap returns of billions of dollars when you succeed. And if you fail? Our liability...
Let’s be clear. The EU is over-regulated. That stifles innovation and causes brain drain to the US. Please, Europeans, wisen up that you’re being penny wise and pound foolish with your regulations.
US: no compensation for late flights but you have private equity and venture capital principals willing to throw millions of dollars at you so you (and they) can reap returns of billions of dollars when you succeed. And if you fail? Our liability structures mean you won’t go personally bankrupt.
EU: compensation for late flights but you’re stuck in the lower middle class
There’s plenty of ULCC’s in Europe that make money, even with customer protections like EU261. If they can do it so can we. The USA desperately needs to just copy and paste EU261 for our country.
You sound very misinformed. The Netherlands and other large countries in the EU have higher average net worth.
Wealth per capita:
Netherlands - $205,000
US - $197,000
So the average EU citizen makes more money than the average American, but they also get free health care and their airline refunds are guaranteed as icing on the cake lol
Yeah not even close. Wealth and income are different. Look up average EU income vs average American and American is higher. There are a lot of different sources but typically it’s about 30k for the EU vs 40k for the US. If we are talking about median income it gets even larger in the US favor.
It’s smoke and mirrors as you pay 1000s in the US for healthcare. If Americans don’t work they either die from lack of it or go bankrupt. An American colleague pays less tax but $900 a month on private healthcare - so that’s at additional tax.
Why does everything have to be compared with the US ?? The current government there has a policy of isolation and xenophobia. In Europe we don’t care there’s...
It’s smoke and mirrors as you pay 1000s in the US for healthcare. If Americans don’t work they either die from lack of it or go bankrupt. An American colleague pays less tax but $900 a month on private healthcare - so that’s at additional tax.
Why does everything have to be compared with the US ?? The current government there has a policy of isolation and xenophobia. In Europe we don’t care there’s no eq of ec261 in the USA. You don’t even have decent annual leave. The only country with no sick pay. Pregnant - no maternity leave and forced to take sick leave. As if it’s going to get better.
And then Americans spend all that extra income on cars because a vast majority of the population literally can't get to work without one. Yeah, this is an EU W. I don't care if I make less money if it also means I don't have to buy and maintain a $40k depreciating asset just to get to work.
Greetings from Norway.
“US: where a tiny fraction of the country holds all the wealth and you have to hope they choose to throw you some scraps so you can succeed”
That’s some good ol’ fashion working class freedom right there
So you haven’t succeeded I presume?
What’s the reason for your failure? Too lazy?
Enforcement of EU261 is so poor. Airlines can do whatever they want without any repercussions. It's a wild west and governments with their civil aviation authorities do little.
If you read the story, you would understand that airlines can't do what they want. If they could do what they wanted, they would not have paid & the plane would have left on time. Super basic non-critical thinking.
But this needed a) the involvement of a claims agency (that took a huge chunk of the money owed to pax), b) a special circumstance where a lot of money was owed to the same agency, c) a big expense and risk for the agency, d) took a couple of years, e) was only possible in one of the many jurisdictions within the EU - it wouldn’t have happened in many other countries, even though EU 261 also applies.
Exactly @Arne Heins is right. Most people give up long before. In the UK you have to go to a small claims court and sometimes it costs more file the proceedings. And even if they rule in your favour, there is no enforcement, they can't do anything to ensure the airline complies. It's especially why low cost carriers like Ryanair and Wizz Air get away without paying.
Wizzair found itself in facing a bailiff too, and coughed up - that claim was for more than EU261 - actual consequential loss. I think the claimant probably works in debt collection:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-64999557
Has Wizzair now improved on paying out EU261 as a result?
meanwhile, in Canada, they just refuse you compensation even if it falls under the compensation criteria. And they just laugh at you and say "what are you gonna do bro?"
In a country that respects the rule of law there are clear and orderly enforcement procedures. There have been circumstances where a creditor can seize an aircraft
It took over a year for the claims company I use to have Air Canada pay up. Took a lawsuit in the NL even.
On the other hand, LOT paid me directly after a few weeks in Canadian $ from their Toronto office.
Never did get money from Azores…
It took over a year for the claims company I use to have Air Canada pay up. Took a lawsuit in the NL even.
On the other hand, LOT paid me directly after a few weeks in Canadian $ from their Toronto office.
Never did get money from Azores…
It's ridiculous that consumers have to give a portion of their compensation to a middle man in order to get airlines to pay what they legally owe.
The EU needs to start cracking down on this. Say, for every month compensation is delayed past the first 60 days, it doubles. Or, establish a free government-run middleman that charges the airlines 5000EUR for each case ruled against them if the claim was originally denied.
Consumers are not obligated to. Plenty of people (myself included) pursue EU261 claims without the assistance of a middleman.
In my experience it does the trick to just write them that if they won't pay you will take legal action through your lawyer. Worked every time, got payed full without using any middle man agencies...
I too have successfully filed many claims directly. But there are some where they just repeatedly deny it. (LH is a prime example of a carrier that does this. I've literally never had them just pay me.) And at some point your only option is to sic a bigger dog on them.
You don't have to hire a company. I successfully brought suit against a foreign airline in Denver small claims court, for a claim related to the Montreal Convention.
Don't disagree,.
An easy alternative would be if an EU agency collected the data on all flights, filtered for those over the 2/3/4 hour delay, asked airlines to submit reasons for exceptions, argued with the airline about the fake excuse reasons, and published a list of the delayed flights with against each one: "eligible", "weather", "external industrial action" etc.
Might even be possible without any change in legislation.