FLIGHT: CJEU DECISION: FUEL ON AIRPORT ROLLWAY IS CONSIDERED "EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE"
from Armin Trojer
Passengers are generally entitled to a compensation payment of between 250 and 600 euros if their arrival is delayed by three hours or more. The airline only does not have to pay this if it can prove the existence of extraordinary circumstances.
The airline invoked this and refused to pay compensation in the amount of 250 euros. Ryanair explained that the delay was due to the presence of fuel on a taxiway at Treviso airport. As a result, the runway in question was closed for more than two hours.
The Belgian Justice of the Peace Court before which Mr. Moens finally filed a lawsuit was thus faced with the question of whether the presence of propellant on a taxiway at the airport constituted an "exceptional circumstance".
Ultimately, the case was referred to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling.
The wording of the Court's judgment:
'(1) Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 295/91 must be interpreted, in the light of recitals 14 and 15 in the preamble thereto, as meaning that the presence of fuel on an airport runway which led to its closure and, consequently, to a significant delay in departure or arrival at that airport falls within the concept of 'extraordinary circumstances' within the meaning of that provision, where the fuel in question did not come from an aircraft of the air carrier which operated that flight.
2) Article 5(3) of Regulation No 261/2004 must be interpreted, in the light of recitals 14 and 15 in the preamble thereto, as meaning that the presence of fuel on an airport runway, which led to its closure and which is indisputably an 'extraordinary circumstance', must be regarded as a circumstance which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures within the meaning of that provision had been taken."
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