Attention travelers! If pilots go on strike and flights are canceled or too late as a result, customers can be entitled to compensation. However, the ECJ also names limits for these compensation rights.
If a flight is canceled or significantly delayed due to an announced strike by airline employees, the customer may be entitled to compensation.
The airline could not argue that such a strike is an “exceptional circumstance”, especially if it complies with the applicable law, said the European Court of Justice (ECJ) after a ruling. If the industrial action is limited to, for example, increasing wages or improving working hours, this is “part of the normal conduct of the company’s business” (Case C-28/20).
Strike ruling is “groundbreaking” for air travelers
Airhelp, a company specializing in the enforcement of passenger rights, which is also a party to the legal dispute, described the decision as “groundbreaking”. “The decision of the European Court of Justice sets a new standard for how strikes are handled, as it is binding for all EU countries and airlines.”
The left-wing transport politician Jörg Cezanne announced that the judgment not only strengthens consumers, but also employee representatives.
The background is a dispute from Scandinavia. A passenger wants an airline compensation of 250 euros because a flight from Malmö to Stockholm scheduled for April 2019 was canceled on the same day due to a pilots strike in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Because of the multi-day stoppage, more than 4,000 flights were canceled, which affected almost 400,000 guests. According to the airline, if every guest had received a flat-rate compensation payment, costs of almost 120 million euros would have been incurred.
“Extraordinary circumstance”: Two circumstances are important for airlines
According to the ECJ, two conditions must be met in order for something to be described as an “exceptional circumstance” in the sense of the legal basis, which releases the airlines from their compensation obligations: On the one hand, the event that led to the disabilities must not be part of normal operations . On the other hand, it should not be controllable by the airline.
However, this must be considered on a case-by-case basis. A strike can be an “exceptional circumstance” if it is carried out by employees of other companies – such as air traffic controllers – or if the strikers’ demands can only be met by government agencies.
As early as 2018, the top EU judges ruled that airlines were not automatically exempted from their obligation to pay compensation, even in the event of wildcat strikes. The background was massive sickness reports from the Tuifly crews. According to the ECJ, the company had surprisingly announced restructuring, and conflicts with employees would then not be unusual.