ECJ: Applicability of the Air Passenger Rights Regulation for stopovers in EU

Mar 18, 2022 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the EU Passenger Rights Regulation (Regulation No. 261/2004) does not apply if a flight is operated with an EU airline, but a landing at an airport in the EU is merely a stopover of a journey from one third country to another.

In the original case, the passengers represented by Airhelp (an air passenger rights portal) had booked a flight from Chisinau (Moldova) via Vienna to Bangkok with a single booking. Austrian Airlines was to operate both of these flights. The flight from Chisinau to Vienna was cancelled and the passengers were booked on a flight from Istanbul to Bangkok. This flight arrived in Bangkok more than 2:27 hours late compared to the arrival time of the originally scheduled Vienna-Bangkok flight.

Airhelp demanded compensation of EUR 300 for the passengers. Airhelp and Austrian Airlines now argued about whether the delay should be determined by comparing it with the scheduled arrival time of the original flight or the alternative flight. This was unnecessary - as the ECJ found, because the regulation is not applicable to such a flight:

According to Art 3 para 1, the EU Passenger Rights Regulation is applicable if

• the flight starts in a member state or
• passengers fly with an EU airline from a third country to the Union and they do not receive compensation and assistance in the third country.

According to the ECJ, in the case of a single flight booking consisting of two partial flights, only the first point of departure and the final destination are relevant. The place of the stopover, on the other hand, is not relevant. An application to cases such as this one would also be inconsistent, because such a booking would have to be understood as a whole (in the case of compensation payments according to Art 7), but would have to be artificially divided in order for the regulation to be applicable.

ECJ C-451/20 (24.02.2022)