In the first instance, the Munich District Court dismissed a suit brought by a passenger who wanted his tour operator to compensate him for a flight delay caused by the insolvency of Small Planet Germany.

The passenger and his wife wanted to fly from Nuremberg to Marsa Alam on October 2, 2018. The tickets were included as part of a package tour, so the tour operator was the contractual partner of the two. Small Planet Airlines had to file for bankruptcy on September 18, 2018. The organizer then transferred the booking to another company. As a result, the departure had been postponed by a few hours. The tour operator voluntarily transferred a price reduction of 100 euros.

However, that was not enough for the plaintiff, because he demanded a total of 800 euros for himself and his wife, referring, among other things, to EU Regulation 261/2004. However, the Munich District Court is of the opinion that no binding flight times were agreed between the travelers and the organizer and therefore no compensation payment is to be made.

Furthermore, the court pointed out that the postponement is to be seen “in the context of mass tourism as a mere inconvenience”. The plaintiff also stated that his wife had circulatory problems due to the four-hour waiting time at the airport. The Munich District Court did not go into this further and dismissed this fact by stating that there was a previous illness and the state of health was not the subject of the package travel contract.