In the event of a flight cancellation, passengers are compensated, unless the airline faces “extraordinary circumstances”.
Are you going on vacation soon and you’re afraid your flight will be canceled? Please note that a flight which was to take place and which was not carried out must give rise to a refund of the ticket and possible damages if this cancellation caused particular harm. For European flights, Regulation CE 261/2004 provides for assistance and financial compensation which depend on the country of departure of the flight, the country of arrival and the nationality of the airline.
The airline is required to offer you either re-routing on another flight to your intended destination under comparable conditions or to refund your ticket within seven days. It must also pay you a lump sum compensation of 250 euros for flights of less than 1,500 km, 400 euros in the European Community of more than 1,500 km or flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km outside the European Union and 600 euros for other flights of more than 3,500 km outside the European Union.
However, this cancellation compensation is not due if the airline informed you at least two weeks before your departure, or if it offered you a seat on another flight at a time close to your initial flight. Airlines are also exempt from refunds in the event of exceptional circumstances related to external events beyond their control. This is particularly the case for weather conditions, natural disasters and security risks. And until now, technical problems were not part of these extraordinary circumstances. In the event of cancellation due to aircraft failure, passengers could therefore be compensated.
But this is no longer the case since a judgment handed down on June 13, 2024 by the Court of Justice of the European Union! She in fact ruled in favor of the Finnish company Finnair Oyj which did not want to compensate a passenger for a canceled flight due to the discovery of a technical problem on a very recent and even almost new plane.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has, in fact, considered that a breakdown that has never been observed could fall into this category. “The occurrence of an unexpected and unprecedented technical failure affecting a new aircraft model recently put into service and leading the air carrier to cancel a flight falls within the concept of “extraordinary circumstances”, it specified in its judgment, which therefore opens the door to an extension of flights not compensated for such circumstances for new aircraft models.