Court of Justice: compensation for delays to connecting flights provided by different companies

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Eva, Legal Advisor
Published on 24 October 2022

A consumer books a journey from the EU to the United States via a travel agent. The journey was booked as a single product, but consisted of various flights with different airlines. The passenger has to transfer to a local flight with an American airline in the US. That flight encounters a long delay. Can this passenger still claim European passenger rights and request compensation?

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Legal issue

The Court of Justice of the European Union dealt with this question from a German passenger. The passenger had booked a journey from Stuttgart (Germany) to Kansas City (US) with two transfers via a travel agent. The first flight from Stuttgart to Zürich was operated by Swiss International Air Lines. The flights from Zürich to Philadelphia and from Philadelphia to Kansas City were operated by American Airlines. The passenger was delayed for four hours on the flight from Philadelphia to Kansas City.

The German passenger demanded compensation of €600 from American Airlines based on the European rules via a claims agency. The claims agency took the case to the German court. They presented the case to the Court of Justice.

Connecting flights

The Court ruled that the right to compensation for long delays also applies to ‘connecting flights’. When are there connecting flights?

  • The flights were operated separately from each other by different airlines.
  • The flights were combined by a travel agent.
  • The passenger paid one total price for all the flights together.
  • One single ticket was issued.

Ruling

In this case, the German passenger had booked the entire journey from Stuttgart to his final destination in the US. The journey was sold and registered by a travel agent. The travel agent issued an invoice with a total price for the entire journey. The electronic ticket number was shown on the boarding passes for those flights. The flights operated by American Airlines had one single reservation number for the whole journey.

The Court viewed this as one single reservation and therefore as connecting flights. According to the Court, it did not matter that there was no legal relationship between the different airlines. The German passenger could therefore demand compensation.

Want to find out more?

You can find more information about the ruling in C-436/21 Flightright on the Infocuria website (Case Law of the European Court of Justice).

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