On April 7th the CJEU issued a judgment in United Airlines (C-561/20), addressing rights of air passengers in a situation of a delayed connecting flight. We commented on the opinion in this case last December ((Not)Dashing through the snow...). AG Athanasios Rantos argued for the applicability of Regulation 261/2004 to a delay of a second connecting flight, which was operated by a non-EU air carrier (United Airlines) between two US airports, considering that passengers made their reservation with an EU air carrier (Lufthansa) and the reservation encompassed connecting flights leading passengers from Brussels (Belgium) to the US. Previous case law of the CJEU already emphasised the need to treat flights that were included in one reservation as one unit (para 29). The CJEU agrees with this interpretation, as well as with the fact that since Regulation 261/2004 places liability for delayed flights on operating air carriers, passengers have a claim in this case against a non-EU air carrier - United Airlines (paras 33 and 41-42). They operated all of the flights, under a code-sharing agreement with Lufthansa, which means they acted on behalf of a party who had a contractual obligation towards passengers (paras 39-40).
