In the event of a flight cancellation, reimbursement of air tickets acquired as part of a package tour to affected passengers cannot be imposed on the airline that is supposed to charter the plane, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Wednesday 10 July (Case C-163/18).
Three travellers, whose flights between Eelde (Netherlands) and Corfu (Greece) were cancelled, filed a complaint with the Dutch courts against Aegean Airlines, which was supposed to charter their aircraft, in order to obtain compensation for the cancellation of the flight and a refund of the tickets. These tickets were included in a package tour purchased from the Hellas Travel agency. Having declared bankruptcy, the company did not refund the airline tickets to its customers.
The Dutch courts ordered Aegean Airlines to pay passengers a lump sum compensation under Regulation (261/2004) establishing air passengers' rights. On the other hand, it referred the matter to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling on whether the airline was also required to reimburse the airline tickets.
With its judgment, the Court replied in the negative. In its view, the mere existence of a right to reimbursement under the Package Travel Directive (90/314/EEC) is sufficient to exclude the possibility for a passenger whose flight is part of a travel package to claim reimbursement of his or her ticket from the air carrier under the regulation on air passenger rights.
Cumulating the rights to reimbursement of the ticket under both the regulation and the directive would lead to unjustified over-protection of the passenger to the detriment of the operating air carrier, the EU judge considers.
This conclusion also applies in the event that the tour operator is financially unable to reimburse the tickets. According to the Court, the directive provides that the tour operator must provide sufficient guarantees to ensure the repayment of the funds deposited in the event of bankruptcy.
Consult the judgment: http://bit.ly/2XARDBE (Martin Molko, intern)