An interesting judgment on air passenger rights has been given today by the Court of Justice in the case Krijgsman (C-302/16). It clarifies that the airlines are responsible for paying out compensation to passengers whose flights have been cancelled (pursuant to Regulation 261/2004) in any event when the information on the cancellation has not been communicated to the passengers at least two weeks before the scheduled departure time. The airlines don't discharge their obligation by timely notifying about the cancellation the travel agent through which the passengers booked their flight, if that information is not relayed further to the passengers by the travel agent. This is consistent with keeping the compensation pursuant to Regulation 261/2004 separate from any contractual relationship between airlines and passengers.
In practice this means that anyone booking a flight through a travel agency (whether regular one or an online intermediary websites) may still expect to be compensated by the airlines in case of a flight's cancellation, unless they have received information about this cancellation at least two weeks before the scheduled departure time (either from the airline or from their travel agent).
