Today the CJEU issued a judgment in Airhelp case (C-451/20 - not yet in English) regarding interpretation of air passengers rights and Regulation 261/2004. You may check our previous post on the AG's opinion in this case here. The CJEU evaluated the applicability of the Regulation 261/2004 to the factual scenario presented by this case differently than the AG, which means that it found the operating air carrier not liable.
A brief reminder: the case concerned connecting flights, with the original point of departure and the final destination in a third country. Consequently, the connecting factors to the EU and the applicability of Regulation 261/2004 were limited to: 1) Community-based operating air carrier (Austrian Airlines), and 2) connection taking place in Vienna.
AG Saugmandsgaard Øe considered the above two factors sufficient to apply Regulation 261/2004, preferring a pro-passenger, broad interpretation of the provisions of the Regulation, and warning against a possibility of different treatment for passengers on the same (delayed or cancelled) flight, depending on how their whole journey was planned.
The CJEU interpreted provisions of Article 3 Regulation strictly finding that the place of the connection is neither the place of departure nor arrival mentioned in this provision (para 23) and that the connected flights covered by one reservation should be evaluated jointly (para 26). The CJEU highlights the need for consistent interpretation here, thus if connecting flights are treated jointly for the purposes of estimating passengers' rights to compensation, they should not be 'artificially' separated for the purposes of assessing when Regulation 261/2004 is applicable (para 28).
Further, the CJEU considers the systematic incoherence of Article 3 Regulation 261/2004 that could follow if the interpretation preferred by AG Saugmandsgaard Øe was supported. It does not address, however, concerns as to potential unequal treatment of various passengers of the same flight, focusing instead on assuring legal certainty of these provisions.
