Ever since European Court of Justice (ECJ) has issued its landmark ruling equating the “long delay” with a cancellation (Sturgeon, C 402/07 und C 432/07, Slg. 2009, I 10923) opening the path to compensation claims in cases where passengers reach their destination three or more hours after schedule, the Airlines affected by this ruling have been in denial. On demanding proper compensation they were refusing to accept this ruling and instead pointed to some rogue lower court judicial cases that indeed offered a limiting interpretation alleging conflict with the Montreal Convention. Since the ECJ has the last say, the Airlines were hoping that the ECJ would show leniency and thus reconsider its former ruling.

That hope has been smashed now.

The ECJ reaffirmed its ruling after it has been asked to do so in a combined case by the magistrate court in Cologne as well the High Court of Justice in the UK. The ECJ rejected a conflict with the Montreal Convention and regarded the obligation to compensate for "long delays" as proportionate and called for by the Regulation (EC) No 261/2004.

Hence, with three or more hours in delay passengers remain entitled to compensation unless caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

ECJ, 23. 10. 2012 – C-581/10 and C-629/10

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