The European Court of Justice has decided that airlines are also obliged to provide compensation according to EU Regulation 261/2004 if it is a through booking with flight segments between two non-EU members and this by a non-EU carrier is served.

It happens again and again that you fly from an airport in the European Union to a third country, change planes there and then fly to another non-EU member state. The ECJ had to deal with the question of whether the Air Passenger Rights Regulation is applicable in the event of a delay in the second leg of a flight operated outside the EU by a non-EU carrier. This was approved.

In the judgment published today, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) states that the regulation is applicable in this case: The ECJ has already clarified in previous judgments that a flight with one or more transfers, which was the subject of a single booking, should be considered as a whole so that the applicability of the EU Air Passenger Rights Regulation must be assessed taking into account the first point of departure and the final destination of the flight.

In judgment C-561/20 published today, the CJEU consequently held that a passenger on a flight comprising two flight segments and departing from an airport in the territory of a Member State and bound for an airport in a third country was the subject of a single booking flying to another airport in that third country is entitled to compensation if he has reached his final destination with a delay of three hours or more, even if the delay occurred on the second leg of the flight. Whether the operating air carrier is one of the Community or not is irrelevant for this interpretation. (ECJ of April 07.04.2022th, 561, C-20/XNUMX).

"In short: The demand for a compensation payment under the EU Air Passenger Rights Regulation, which amounts to between 250 and 600 euros per passenger depending on the distance, is justified according to the ECJ, since the flight route falls within the scope of the regulation," informs Maria-Theresia Röhsler, Head of the Agency for Passenger and Passenger Rights.