Flight canceled or rebooked: Anyone entitled to pandemic compensation

Reposted because of Corona: Now that fewer people are flying, airlines are cutting their flight plans. What rules apply if you can't fly as planned – and who even gets compensation.

Airlines are currently cutting their flight schedules because demand has slumped due to the novel Sars-CoV-2 corona virus. In particular, flights to the USA and from there to Europe as well as the connections to Italy are currently affected by cancellations and rebookings.

Those who cannot or do not want to keep the new appointment, or generally want to fly at a significantly later time, can rebook for free with airlines such as Lufthansa.

The conditions for compensation

However, there is not necessarily money. If passengers are rebooked and flight times or even the flight day change, compensation is only provided under certain conditions. The entitlement depends on the point in time at which the airline informs a passenger: If the company informs you 14 days before departure or earlier about the change in flight time or flight date, there is no compensation payment under the EU Passenger Rights Regulation. This is pointed out by travel lawyer Paul Degott from Hanover.

Corona "no joker" for airlines

On the other hand, if the airline cancels a flight less than two weeks before departure for business reasons and rebooks the passenger, he is entitled to compensation. According to Degott, the fact that the corona virus is rampant in Europe is not an exceptional circumstance in relation to a single flight: "Corona is now the joker of the airlines, but that is not enough."

The airline is only released from the obligation to pay in the event of short-term cancellations if, in principle, the passenger can no longer enter – as is currently the case in Israel.

Airlines point to an exceptional situation

However, a dispute is already beginning to emerge: the airlines insist on exceptional circumstances in the event of flight cancellations due to the corona virus. Internet passenger rights portals point out that the cancellations are generally purely business decisions. In case of doubt, courts have to decide in the end.

Regardless of claims from the EU regulation, there can be a claim for damages. This simply results from the contract of carriage. Example: If a vacationer is rebooked on a flight two days later, he can charge the airline for the two hotel nights, Degott says.