Court of Justice: Airline must compensate flight delay if it's caused by its own choice

Stacking flight delays

Two passengers fly from Germany to Bulgaria. But their flight leaves more than three hours later than planned. This is due to the delay of an earlier flight, because the same aircraft would be used for both flights. During the earlier flight, the airline, European Air Charter, decided to wait for a group of passengers. Those passengers would otherwise have missed the flight due to the very long waiting time at the security check. Because European Air Charter decided to wait, that flight was delayed by more than five hours. European Air Charter arranged a replacement aircraft and rescheduled the following flights. Those flights were also delayed.

Lawsuit about compensation for the delay of the second flight

Both passengers of the second flight are asking for compensation of €400 for the delay. But European Air Charter states that the delay arose because the earlier flight departed five hours late. The airline argues that it could not do anything about that situation. In that case, force majeure would apply. According to European Air Charter, this would also apply to the delay of the second flight. Therefore, the airline would not have to pay compensation for the delay of the second flight. The passengers do not agree with this response and bring the case to the court in Germany.

The German judge wonders whether European Air Charter can invoke force majeure. Did the waiting time at the security check indeed cause an unavoidable delay of the first flight? If so, can the same reason apply to the next flight delays? In that case, the airline would not have to compensate the passengers of the affected flights. The German judge asks the Court of Justice of the European Union for clarification.

Court of Justice says that force majeure does not apply in this case

According to the Court of Justice, European Air Charter cannot invoke force majeure that has affected a previous flight. The airline itself decided to wait for the passengers who were still in line for the security check. The next flight was delayed because of that decision. The first flight could also have left on time. However, the national court must verify whether the airline was required to wait for the passengers.

In addition, the airline may not invoke the interest of passengers of a previous flight to travel on time. Nor does the airline have to compare the interests of different groups of passengers. Otherwise, it could too easily refuse to compensate passengers for flight delays that are caused by a previous flight.

Want to know more?

The full judgment T-656/24 can be found on the website of InfoCuria (case law of the Court of Justice) CURIA - Documents (europa.eu).