The Court of Justice of the European Union has clarified the notion of ‘connecting flight’ within the meaning of the regulation on compensation to air passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights (261/2004), in a judgment handed down on Thursday 6 October (case C-436/21).
A German legal aid company is claiming €600 in compensation from a passenger who flew from Stuttgart to Kansas City (USA) via Zurich and then Philadelphia. The Stuttgart/Zurich flight was operated by Swiss International Air Lines and the Zurich/Kansas City flight by American Airlines, with no legal link between the two airlines. The passenger had a ticket that constituted a single proof of reservation (same electronic ticket number on all boarding passes) for her entire journey from Stuttgart to Kansas City, which had been registered by a tour operator.
In its judgment, the Court ruled that the concept of a ‘connecting flight’ covers a transport operation from a Member State consisting of several flights operated by separate operating air carriers, which are not linked by any legal relationship, where those flights have been combined by a travel agency which has charged an overall price and issued a single ticket for that operation.
See the Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/3gp (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)