EU Regulation 261/2004 became law in 2004 to help enforce and protect the rights of air passengers and to stop air carriers operating within and out of the EU from overbooking or cancelling flights for commercial reasons. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that EC261 applies not only to cancelled flights but also delayed flights.
That means that air carriers have to compensate passengers delayed for three hours or more unless the delay is caused by an “extraordinary circumstance”. To avoid such payment the air carriers must be able to prove that the delay was caused by “extraordinary circumstances” and that the delay could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
This, added to that the CJEU has slowly eroded the types of circumstances which are regarded as “extraordinary”, means that it is hardly surprising that ‘claims farmers’ and ‘no-win-no-fee’ law firms have made EC261 into a very profitable business.
Thus, EU261 provides an undoubted financial benefit to passengers directly affected by denied boarding, cancellation and long delay. The air carriers are met with a considerable economic burden, in particular in relation to the payment of fixed compensation often far beyond the revenue the air carriers had generated from the ticket price paid by the affected passengers.
IACOBUS Law
Your Aviation Law Partner