ECJ on Airport Understaffing and Compensation Payments

May 31, 2024 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that an airline is not obliged to pay compensation if it delays loading baggage because of staff shortages.

It all began with a Touristic Aviation Services Ltd. (Corendon Airlines Europe) flight from Cologne-Bonn, Germany, to Kos, Greece, that landed with a delay of three hours and 49 minutes. The delay was due firstly to a delayed pre-flight phase due to a shortage of check-in staff, secondly to a delay in the loading of baggage onto the aircraft due to a shortage of staff at the airport operator’s, and thirdly to a brief weather delay at take-off.

On behalf of several passengers, Flightright claimed compensation.

The Regional Court of Cologne has now referred the case to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling.

The ECJ had to decide whether the delay caused by the late loading of baggage due to a lack of staff at the airport constituted an extraordinary circumstance within the meaning of Article 5(3) of the Regulation on the Rights of Air Passengers. In this case, Corendon Airlines would not have to pay compensation because the part of the delay attributable to Corendon was less than three hours.

According to established ECJ case law, extraordinary circumstances are events which, by their nature or cause, do not form part of the normal exercise of the carrier’s activity and cannot be effectively controlled by it.

Whether these conditions apply to the delay in loading baggage in this case the ECJ left to the German court to decide. However, the ECJ made it clear that this could be an exceptional circumstance in any case. The airline must, however, prove that the delay in loading the baggage could not have been avoided even if the airline had taken all reasonable measures and that it had taken preventive measures appropriate to the situation in order to minimise the consequences.

ECJ C-405/23 (16 May 2024)