Brussels, 20/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - An air carrier must compensate passengers if they have been denied boarding on account of the rescheduling of their flight following a strike at the airport which took place two days beforehand and affected a previous flight. Only denied boarding justified on grounds relating to the personal situation of those passengers may exempt the air carrier from that obligation. That is the opinion preferred by Advocate General Yves Bot on Thursday 19 April to the EU Court of Justice which had been called on by the Finnish Supreme Court to interpret the concept of “denied boarding” in a case between a passenger rescheduled on a flight later than the one for which he had purchased a ticket from Finnish airline Finnair Oy (Case C-22/11). Advocate General Bot says that this concept must be interpreted broadly and cannot be limited to overbooking. To accept that only situations of overbooking are covered by the concept of denied boarding would have the effect of depriving passengers of the protection offered by EU law (Regulation 261/2004). Moreover, a company can only justify denying boarding if the passenger himself/herself commits a fault, for example by presenting invalid identity documents, or displays inappropriate behaviour) and certainly not for reasons of flight scheduling following exceptional circumstance (such as an airport strike). If the company suffers as a result of such circumstances, it can seek compensation from the persons responsible, in accordance with the national law applicable, but must treat all of its passengers equally. (FG/transl.rt)