The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that airlines could be exempted from compensating their customers affected by ‘long delays’ if these are caused by a shortage of airport staff responsible for loading and unloading baggage; provided that the company proves that this is an ‘extraordinary circumstance’.
The ruling comes in response to a preliminary ruling question from a German court, which sought to interpret the applicable EU law in a case involving a group of passengers. Those affected were delayed for three hours and forty minutes on a TAS flight from Cologne-Bonn to the Greek island of Kos.
TAS refused to compensate the claimants, arguing that the delay was mainly caused by a lack of airport staff to load the luggage onto the plane. The airline argues that this situation is an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ for which it is not responsible.
According to the Luxembourg-based Court, insufficient baggage handling staff can be considered an ‘extraordinary circumstance’. However, it must be proven that the situation is neither by its nature nor by its origin inherent in the carrier’s activity and that it is beyond its effective control. It is therefore up to the German court to verify whether these requirements are met in the case in question.
