The Bottom Line
- Increased Financial Liability: Airlines cannot avoid compensation for a cancelled flight by offering a re-routing, even if the cancellation notice was timely. If the replacement flight is significantly delayed, compensation is still calculated based on the original booking.
- Operational Scrutiny Required: The performance of the substitute flight is now directly linked to the liability for the initial cancellation. This requires more robust operational planning to ensure replacement flights are reliable and meet strict timing criteria.
- Legal Defenses Narrowed: A key legal defense for airlines has been nullified. The Court confirmed that a re-routing is a fulfillment of the original transport contract, not a new agreement, keeping the initial passenger rights fully intact.
The Details
The case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerned a passenger whose flight was cancelled by an airline more than two weeks in advance. The passenger accepted the airline’s offer of a re-routing flight. Crucially, this replacement flight then arrived at the final destination with a delay of over three hours compared to the original scheduled arrival time. The airline argued that because the initial cancellation was communicated with sufficient notice, no compensation was due for that event, and the delay of the new, separate flight was below the threshold for compensation.
The CJEU firmly rejected the airline’s “two separate events” argument. The Court reasoned that an offer of re-routing is not a new, independent contract but a fulfillment of the airline’s obligations under the original contract of carriage following a cancellation. Therefore, the passenger’s rights remain anchored to that initial booking. The right to compensation, established by the initial cancellation, is not extinguished simply because the passenger accepted an alternative flight.
The Court’s ruling clarifies that the key test for compensation is whether the passenger reaches their final destination at a time that meets the strict criteria laid out in the EU’s Air Passenger Rights Regulation (EC No 261/2004). When a re-routed flight is delayed, its arrival time must be compared to the scheduled arrival time of the original cancelled flight. If this delay exceeds the regulation’s thresholds (e.g., arrival two hours or more later, depending on the circumstances), the passenger is entitled to the fixed-sum compensation, even if the cancellation itself was announced weeks in advance. For airlines and their counsel, this means the entire passenger journey, from initial booking to final arrival via any re-routing, must be viewed as a single, continuous obligation.
Source
Court of Justice of the European Union
