The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled. Passengers who have booked a flight from an airport in the European Union (EU) via a European company can claim compensation in the event of a delay, even if the latter took place on a flight outside European territory by a foreign company, the Court ruled on Thursday 7 April.
The case concerned three passengers who made a reservation with the German company Lufthansa for a flight departing from Brussels, operated by the American United Airlines, and bound for San José (United States), with a stopover on the ground American in Newark.
Having suffered a delay of more than three hours on their arrival on the second part of the flight, the three passengers had claimed the sum of 600 euros each before the Belgian courts, as provided for by European rules.
The determining place of departure
United Airlines had challenged the compensation on the grounds that these rules were not applicable, the technical problem of the device at the origin of the delay having occurred between two American airports. European justice has, on the contrary, considered that the European regulation on passenger rights “assessed with regard to the place of departure”in this case an airport located in the EU, and “the final destination”according to the statement of the Court of Justice of the EU.
The CJEU also specifies that a connecting flight “falls within the scope of the regulation” European, because passengers have “started their journey from an airport located in a Member State”.
The Court further states that an air carrier from a third country, when it has carried out the flight even without having concluded a contract of carriage with the passengers, “may be liable for compensation”. The carrier who “takes the decision to carry out a specific flight, by fixing the itinerary, constitutes the effective air carrier” and he is “deemed to act on behalf of the contracting carrier”in this case Lufthansa, concludes the Court.