Mum, the plane is late!

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What happens if the plane lands with a significant delay? Is the passenger in any way entitled to a damages?

These questions were recently answered by the European Court of Justice, which ruled in the Judgment of 23 October 2012, No. 629/10that in the event of passenger disembarkation with a three-hour delay after the scheduled timethe latter is entitled to request the lump-sum compensation scheduled for the cancellation of the flight.

See on this point the EC Regulation No. 261/2004 which provides that, in the event of flight cancellation, passengers may receive lump-sum compensation of between EUR 250 and EUR 600.

The above principle makes application of what has already been established at Sturgeon judgment of 19/11/2009in which the Luxembourg courts held that passengers of delayed flights can be assimilated to passengers of cancelled flights as regards their right to compensation.

It is clear that compensation cannot be claimed if the air carrier proves that it was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken, i.e. circumstances beyond the air carrier's actual control.

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