THE STORYA cancelled flight.
A cancelled flight.
A spreadsheet that changed.
Summer 2022. Léa Dubois, ex-aviation lawyer at August Debouzy, misses her wedding because TAP cancelled her Lisbon–Paris flight six hours before takeoff.
She knows the procedure inside out. She drafts the formal letter herself. She waits 11 months. She finally gets €400.
“If I, after 8 years at the firm, spent 11 months on this — how many passengers just give up?”
The answer — 87% — pushes her to start GateHelp with Mathéo Tanaka, ex-Eurocontrol, and Sofia Lindqvist, ex-Algolia. First case opened on 14 November 2022, first client payout on 12 February 2023.
Today, the team is 47 across three cities, handles 14,200 active cases and has recovered €48 million for European passengers.