Europe

The plainitff had booked a cruise to the Caribbean and a flight ticket with defendant who acted as agent on behalf of the organiser and the airline. The flight was not part of the cruise package but booked separately. The cruise was scheduled to depart from Ft Lauderdale on 19 April, 2010. However, the closure of the European airspace due to the 'ash cloud crisis' prevented the planitff to fly to Florida. He therefore cancelled the cruise. The organiser charged a cancellation fee of 90 % which the agent paid.

The Montreal Convention provides that an air carrier must pay compensation to each passenger, limited to 1 000 Special Drawing Rights (‘SDRs’) per passenger, in the event of the loss of his baggage during a flight operated by the carrier or while the baggage was in the carrier’s charge. The carrier must provide passengers with an identification tag for each piece of checked baggage.

The "EU Air Passenger Rights Regulation" (Reg, [EC] 261/2004) affords air passengers a right to compensation according to the distance and destination of their cancelled flight, unless the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances. However, it does not specify any time-limit for bringing actions for compensation.

In the two cases decided by the German Supreme Court (BGH) recently, the plaintiffs each had booked long haul flights with non Commnunity carriers. In both cases the transportation consisted of two segments, a feeder flight departing from the EU to a non EU hub and a connecting flight departing from this hub outside the EU to the final destination. In both cases the connecting flights were delayed more than 8 hrs and the plaintiffs sued for compensation pursuant to Reg. (EC) 261/2004.