GER: Delayed Connecting Flight: Passenger Rights

Aug 25, 2023 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, hereinafter BGH) has once again strengthened the rights of air passengers. If you start a flight in an EU country that involves connecting flights, you’re entitled to compensation if delayed, even if only part of the flight takes you outside the EU. It does not matter whether the direct connecting flights are on different airlines or whether the connection flights are on different airlines.

In this case, the plaintiff had booked a flight from Stuttgart, Germany, to Zurich, Switzerland, and flights with the defendant airline from Zurich to Philadelphia and from Philadelphia to Kansas City in the USA through a travel agency. The flight was delayed on the last leg of the journey. As a result, the plaintiff arrived at her destination, Kansas City, more than four hours late. She sought compensation of EUR 600 under the EU’s Air Passenger Rights Regulation.

The court of first instance refused to order the defendant to pay such compensation. The defendant was not the operating carrier of a flight departing from the territory of a member state, and there was no evidence that the defendant had any obligation to the plaintiff with regard to the provision of transport from Stuttgart to Kansas City. The BGH now had to decide. It first stayed proceedings in order to refer questions on the interpretation of the Regulation on the rights of air passengers to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling.

The ruling was as follows:

A transport operation consisting of several flights operated by different air carriers which are not linked by any special legal relationship can be covered by the term ‘direct connecting flights’ under the Passenger Rights Regulation. It is sufficient that the flights were accepted and registered by a travel agent and that a single ticket was then issued in accordance with the Passenger Rights Regulation.

Back in 2019, the ECJ had ruled on a similar issue, saying that passengers on flights with stopovers outside Europe can claim compensation for long delays, provided they started their trip in the EU with a European carrier.

BGH X ZR 15/20 (9 May 2023)