An individual is not entitled to lump-sum compensation under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 governing air passenger rights if they did not go to the airport because they knew that their flight would be more than 3 hours late and would cause them to miss a business appointment, or if they booked a replacement flight that enabled them to reach their final destination with a delay of less than 3 hours, ruled the Court of Justice of the European Union in a judgment delivered on Thursday 25 January (joined cases C-474/22 and C-54/23).
When the German courts referred a question to the Court for a preliminary ruling, the Court referred to its case law (cases C-402/07 and C-432/07, case C-308/21) equating passengers on flights delayed for more than 3 hours with passengers on cancelled flights, considering that the damage suffered in both cases consists of an irreversible loss of time.
In the Court’s view, a passenger who did not go to the airport did not suffer such a loss of time. Furthermore, even if a flight is significantly delayed, it still has to be insured, so the passengers concerned are obliged to check in, while those whose flights are cancelled are exempt.
In addition, the damage caused by missing a business appointment is of an individual nature and could therefore only be compensated by means of ‘additional compensation’ based on national or international law.
As regards taking a replacement flight on one’s own initiative and arriving at the final destination less than 3 hours later than originally planned, the Court ruled that the person concerned had not suffered a loss of time giving entitlement to compensation. According to the Court, the inconvenience suffered, possibly resulting from the search for a replacement flight, is not serious within the meaning of the regulation, since the passenger reached their final destination less than 3 hours late.
Links to the Court’s judgments: -Case C-474/22: https://aeur.eu/f/al8
-Case C-54/23: https://aeur.eu/f/al9 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)