ATW Daily News

ECJ rules airlines must compensate passengers on long-delayed flights

Friday November 20, 2009

The European Court of Justice ruled yesterday that passengers on flights delayed for more than 3 hr. have the same right to seek compensation from airlines as passengers on cancelled flights.

EU regulations clearly entitle passengers on cancelled flights to be compensated between €250 ($373) and €600. Yesterday's ruling stems from cases in Germany and Austria in which passengers on flights that reached their destination airports 25 hr. and 22 hr. late respectively sued Condor and Air France for compensation. German and Austrian courts asked ECJ to clarify whether delays should be treated as cancellations because the EU regulation only refers to cancellations.

ECJ ruled that "passengers who are affected by a delay sustain similar damage [to those affected by a cancellation], consisting in a loss of time, and thus are in a comparable situation." The court noted that, under EU regulations, passengers booked on cancelled flights are entitled to compensation from airlines even if they are immediately rebooked on another flight, provided the new flight arrives more than 3 hr. later than the original flight was supposed to arrive. "There is no justification for treating passengers whose flight is delayed any differently when they reach their final destination 3 hr. or more after their scheduled arrival time," ECJ said.

It clarified that the airline can avoid paying compensation if it "can prove the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances which are beyond its actual control and which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken." It emphasized that "a technical problem in an aircraft cannot be regarded as an 'extraordinary circumstance' unless that problem stems from events which, by their nature or origin, are not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and are beyond its actual control."

In issuing the ruling, the court said that for classification purposes "a flight cannot be regarded as cancelled merely on the ground of duration of a delay, even if it is long." In effect, the court is maintaining the distinction between cancelled and delayed flights while giving passengers on flights delayed more than 3 hr. the same rights to make compensation claims as those on cancelled flights.

by Aaron Karp

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