Airlines must compensate passengers for delays on final destination, says the European Court of Justice

The European Court of Justice offered yesterday its decision in the case C-11/11 Air France SA v Heinz-Gerke Folkerts and Luz-Tereza Folkerts C-11/11 Folkerts (Transport), where Luz-Tereza Folkerts was seeking compensation from Air France SA after arriving 11 hours late in Asuncion, Paraguay on a flight that took her from Bremen, Germany to Paris, France and from Paris to Rio de Janeiro. The European Court of Justice ruled that passengers on connecting flights must be compensated when their flight arrives at the final destination at least three hours late. The fact that the original flight was not delayed beyond the limits laid down by EU law does not affect the right to compensation. The Luxembourg-based court’s ruling can’t be appealed.

According to Bloomberg newswire, the Folkerts’s case is the latest in a line of rulings clarifying the bloc’s law on compensation duties for airlines in cases triggered by passenger compensation requests. The EU court has ruled in previous cases involving Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA), EasyJet Plc (EZJ) and TUI Travel Plc (TT/) that passengers who arrive “three hours or more after the scheduled arrival time” have a right to compensation, except in “extraordinary” circumstances, such as a strike or bad weather conditions.

Oana Vasiliu