While there are all kinds of reasons for flights to be delayed, this has to be one of the more unusual ones…
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?
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