August 2012

The plaintiff and his companions had booked a holiday package to Curacao. The flight MUC-AMS-CUR was to be operated by the defendant. The passengers' luggage was checked through from MUC to CUR. The flight MUC-AMS arrived in AMS with a delay of 20 mins. Nevertheless, the passengers were able to reach the gate for the connecting flight on time. However, they were denied boarding because it was not possible to transship their luggage in due time and same was to be carried on a later flight only.

In two cases the passengers' LH flights from Miami to Germany were cancelled because of a strike of the pilots which followed a call for strike by a pilots' association. In first instance, the courts granted compensation pursuant to Reg. 261/2004. In second instance, the Landgericht Köln dismissed LH's appeal reasoning the a strike of the carrier's own staff could not constitute extraordinary circumstances. In the second case, however, the Landgericht Frankfurt/Main followed LH's appeal and reversed the judgement.

Following the election of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in June, the Egyptian government has appointed a new tourism minister, Mohamed Hisham Abbas Zaazou who had served as the first assistant to Egypt's minister of tourism since 2008, has worked in both the private and public tourism sectors for the past three decades, including  the board of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, the Egyptian Tourist Authority, the Tourism Development Authority and the Arab Tourism Organization.