The stranded passenger

Consumer protection laws are effectively determined by European Law. Either European directives have to be transposed into national law or European regulations lay down the law directly. In both cases national courts have to apply the law. Under certain conditions the ECJ or European Court of Justice has to be consulted as it has the final say.

One of such ground breaking regulations is the European Union’s Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights.

One virulent question regarding that Regulation has recently been addressed by the Federal Court in Germany (BGH), namely,

Has the airline passenger a right to compensation in case he misses the connecting flight due to the delay of the preceding flight?

The decsion was a disappointment to many consumer protection advocates. The BGH, however, did not seek the consultation of the ECJ as outlined above.

So what are the criteria that must be met according to the BGH to qualify for compensation:

1. The passenger either has a confirmed booking for the flight concerned or he is transferred to another flight, for which he or she had such a booking.
2. The passenger has arrived at the check-in desk at the airport at the agreed time or, in the absence of any agreed time, at least 45 minutes before regular departure.
3. The boarding of the aircraft is refused against the passenger’s wish despite appearance on time.

As a background, in the dispute two holiday travellers had booked a flight with Air France from Frankfurt via Paris to Bogota in Bolivia. Due to a delay of a connecting flight from Frankfurt to Paris the passengers missed the flight from Paris to Bogota and were able to fly not before the following day. The passengers sued Air France for compensation of 600,00 € per person. In this case, the Federal Court ruled that the two passengers were not entitled to compensation (pursuant to Article 4, Sub 3 in conjunction with Article 7 of the EU-Regulation 261/2004) if the connecting flight was missed because of the passenger’s late arrival at the check-in desk. In this context, it is of no importance whether the late arrival was caused by his own fault or not. This principle applies even though both the preceding flight and the connecting flight were carried out by the same airline company. There may only be an exception to this general principle if the timely passenger was refused boarding on unreasonable grounds.

This ruling effectively implies that the passenger must arrive at the gate no later than at the end of the boarding process. The decision only concerns the entitlements under the (EC) No 261/2004 Regulation.


In Detail:
http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bgh&Art=en&sid=cc5e25988ad4013a028adab55aeece9c&client=12&nr=48664&pos=0&anz=1


Rechtsanwalt_Jain@yahoo.de