ECJ: Flight brought forward by more than 1h is considered cancelled

Jan 28, 2022 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

According to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), a flight is already considered cancelled if it is brought forward by more than one hour. The ECJ also ruled on the question of when and how an airline informed passengers in good time of the scheduling change.

In the original case, two passengers had booked a flight from Palma de Mallorca to Vienna with the airline Laudamotion via a booking platform. The platform booked the flight on behalf of the passengers, generating a special email address for this purpose. This was the only contact address Laudamotion had. The departure time was brought forward by more than six hours from 14:40 to 8:25. Although Laudamotion communicated this information two weeks in advance via the generated e-mail address, the passengers were only informed of the information via the platform four days before departure.

The passengers filed a lawsuit against Laudamotion. The Korneuburg Regional Court referred the matter to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling:

First of all, bringing forward a flight by more than one hour constitutes a cancellation within the meaning of Art 5 of the Air Passenger Rights Regulation (Regulation No. 261/2004). The ECJ concluded this from the fact that the Passenger Rights Regulation aims to remedy serious inconveniences in passenger air transport. Therefore, the term "cancellation" is to be understood accordingly broadly. Regarding the duration, the ECJ explained that Art 5 para 1 lit c no iii states that pushing a flight time forward by less than one hour exempts the airline from paying compensation.

In addition, the ECJ clarified that Laudamotion must pay compensation for late information about the cancellation even if it informed the booking platform in good time (in this case two weeks before departure), but the platform did not deliver the information until four days before departure. The airline is always the debtor for the payments under the Passenger Rights Regulation. However, the airline had no right of recourse against the booking platform.

ECJ C-263/20 (21.12.2021)