The Association for Consumer Information (VKI) has successfully sued the German airline Eurowings GmbH for two consumers. 

The consumers had booked a flight from Punta Cana to Vienna with a change in Cologne. Since the flight from Punta Cana to Cologne was delayed by more than an hour and passengers were not allowed to check their luggage directly from Punta Cana to Vienna, they missed their connecting flight and arrived in Vienna more than five hours late. The VKI sued on behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs for a compensation payment due to flight delay and was right by the District Court (BG) Schwechat. Eurowings has to pay the consumer 1.200 euros. The judgment is final.

Eurowings refused to make any compensation payments, arguing that missing the first flight was not the cause of the delayed arrival in Vienna and that the flights were not booked as part of a single booking. The BG Schwechat saw things differently: The flights Punta Cana - Cologne - Vienna represent a whole here because they were the subject of a single booking. In the present case, the delay of the first part of the flight in combination with Eurowings' failure to check the passengers through to their final destination Vienna was the reason why they could no longer make the connecting flight and landed in Vienna more than three hours later. The court awarded the consumers 600 euros each because of the flight delay of five hours.