Brussels, 23/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Airline passengers of flights that reach their final destination three hours or more later than initially planned are entitled to fixed-rate compensation from the airline unless the airline can prove that the delay was due to extraordinary circumstances beyond its control.
This ruling was given by the European Court of Justice on Tuesday 23 October in combined cases C-581 and C-629/10, confirming existing case law (the Sturgeon Ruling of 19 November 2009 - Cases C-402/07 and C-432/07 interpreting EU Regulation 261-2004 on compensation and assistance for passengers not allowed to embark, subject to serious delays or whose flight is cancelled), which ruled that passengers of delayed flights can be treated the same as passengers whose flights are cancelled in the sense that they are entitled to demand compensation for lost time, receiving a set amount of between €250 and €600 depending on the distance covered by the flight, as set out in the above regulation). The court of Cologne in Germany and the higher court of justice in the United Kingdom asked the European Court of Justice for details about the scope of the Sturgeon Ruling.
In its explanatory ruling, the Court of Justice said that the duty to provide compensation to passengers of delayed flights comes on top of the damages system laid down by the Montreal Convention (harmonising international aviation rules) and is therefore compatible with the latter, even if the loss of time due to a flight delay is an inconvenience not directly covered by the Montreal Convention. This obligation complies with the principle of legal security for passengers and air carriers and respects the principle of proportionality because it only covers delays causing serious inconvenience, not applying to delays due to exceptional circumstances out of the airline's control (a surprise strike and freak weather conditions, for example).
The airlines in the one of the court cases in question wanted the latest ruling to not have retroactive effect (in other words they want the ruling to exclude passengers whose delayed flights were before the date of the present ruling), the Court of Justice said that there was no reason to restrict the time of application of the current ruling. (FG/transl.fl)