New ruling on boarding rejection

The Court of Justice of the European Union has today ruled that an airline that has notified a passenger in advance that it will deny boarding on a flight for which the passenger has a ticket must pay compensation, even if the passenger did not present himself for boarding under the conditions otherwise set out in the Air Regulation.

According to Article 4(3) of the Air Regulation, the airline must “immediately provide [] compensation” to such passengers who are denied boarding against their will.

The term ‘denied boarding’ is interpreted in Article 2(j) of the Air Regulation as ‘denied boarding of passengers on a flight, even if they have presented themselves for boarding under the conditions laid down in Article 3(2)’.

Article 3(2) states that the Air Regulation (except in the case of cancellation) applies to passengers who have a confirmed reservation for the flight in question and are present at check-in as required by the airline.

In a brand new judgment today (see case C-238/22), the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled on a case where a passenger had booked a flight from Frankfurt am Main to Madrid and back. The outbound flight was to have taken place on December 22, 2017 and the return flight on January 7, 2018.

On December 21, 2017, the company informed the passenger that the company had unilaterally and without prior notice to the passenger brought forward the passenger’s departure to December 20, 2017 (i.e. the day before). As the passenger had not used his departure, his reservation for the return flight on January 7, 2018, had been blocked.

The question before the CJEU was whether the passenger was entitled to compensation for the denied boarding in Madrid on January 7, 2018, even though the passenger never showed up at the airport for this flight (as he had been “warned” in advance).

And to that, the Court of Justice of the European Union said yes. The airline must pay compensation to the passenger in question, even though he did not show up for boarding under the conditions otherwise provided for in the Air Regulation, cf. in particular Article 3(2).

Furthermore, the CJEU ruled that Article 5(1)(c)(i) of the Air Regulation does not regulate the situation where a passenger is informed – at least two weeks before the scheduled time of departure – that the operating air carrier will refuse to carry the passenger.

Article 5(1)(c)(i) states that passengers are not entitled to compensation if they are notified of a cancellation at least two weeks before the scheduled time of departure.

With the latest EU ruling, it is now clear that the 14-day exemption does not apply in the case of deniedboarding . Thismeans that if you are denied boarding, you are entitled to compensation regardless of when you are denied boarding, but even if you do not show up at check-in.