Air Transport

Passengers cannot claim that a flight has been cancelled simply because of an extensive delay, the European Court has ruled, but are nevertheless entitled to compensation if they are delayed by three hours or more.

The issue of passengers' rights to compensation for flight delays has been a source of confusion, notably regarding clarification about whether a heavily-delayed flight should be treated as essentially having been cancelled.

In a ruling today the European Court says that a delayed flight "cannot be regarded as cancelled" on the grounds of duration alone, if all other aspects remain as originally planned, but only if passengers are transferred to a separately-planned flight.

But the court also acknowledges that passengers affected by a long delay sustain "similar damage", in terms of lost time, to those whose flights are cancelled.

"Passengers on a flight which is cancelled at short notice have a right to compensation, even when they are re-routed by the airline on another flight, if they lose three hours or more in relation to the duration originally planned," it states.

"There is no justification for treating passengers whose flight is delayed any differently when they reach their final destination three hours or more after the scheduled arrival time."

Its statement follows clarification requests from German and Austrian judicial authorities which have been considering cases involving delays in excess of 20 hours to Condor and Air France flights.

Carriers are able to decline compensation if a delay is caused by circumstances beyond their control, although the European Court has already previously ruled that technical problems do not qualify as an excuse.