European Court of Justice: “Cancellation” also covers discontinuation of a flight

In his judgment in Case C-83/10 (Rodríguez et al v. Air France) the ECJ on Oct. 13, 2011 ruled that‘Cancellation’, as defined in Article 2(1) of Regulation 261/2004 must be interpreted as meaning that it also covers the case in which that aeroplane took off but, for whatever reason, was subsequently forced to return to the airport of departure where the passengers of the said aeroplane were transferred to other flights;The term ‘further compensation’ as used in Article 12 must be interpreted to the effect that it allows the national court to award compensation, under the conditions provided for by the Convention for the unification of certain rules for international carriage by air or national law, for damage, including non-material damage, arising from breach of a contract of carriage by air. ‘Further compensation’, however, may not be the legal basis for the national court to order an air carrier to reimburse to passengers whose flight has been delayed or cancelled the expenses the latter have had to incur because of the failure of that carrier to fulfil its obligations to assist and provide care under Article 8 and Article 9. See full text of judgement here>>.

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