Indirect flights - second leg delayed

llov1_04

I wonder if anyone has any advice regarding flights that are indirect where the second leg is delayed/cancelled?

In 2012, we had a flight with Etihad from London to Bangkok, which had a short stop at Abu Dhabi to refuel. Cutting a long story short, the second leg of the flight was cancelled and we therefore arrived in Bangkok about 7 hours later than scheduled. I have contacted Etihad with regards to compensation and although they accept full liability for the cancellation, they state that as the flight was not from an EU country (Abu Dhabi) and was a non-EU airline, the rules do not apply.

I find this hard to believe given this was 1 flight booked. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance

Vauban

llov1_04 wrote: »

I wonder if anyone has any advice regarding flights that are indirect where the second leg is delayed/cancelled?

In 2012, we had a flight with Etihad from London to Bangkok, which had a short stop at Abu Dhabi to refuel. Cutting a long story short, the second leg of the flight was cancelled and we therefore arrived in Bangkok about 7 hours later than scheduled. I have contacted Etihad with regards to compensation and although they accept full liability for the cancellation, they state that as the flight was not from an EU country (Abu Dhabi) and was a non-EU airline, the rules do not apply.

I find this hard to believe given this was 1 flight booked. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance

Look up "Folkerts" on this forum - that's what you need to read.

llov1_04

Thank you for the response. I have been reading up on the Folkerts case. However, that case had the first leg delayed , thus impacting the second leg of the journey. Whereas our first leg was on time but the second leg was cancelled for no reason. Does this ruling still apply to my case? Any advice would be welcome

Obviously_the_best

If it's the second leg, tough. No free money for you!!!

Vauban

llov1_04 wrote: »

Thank you for the response. I have been reading up on the Folkerts case. However, that case had the first leg delayed , thus impacting the second leg of the journey. Whereas our first leg was on time but the second leg was cancelled for no reason. Does this ruling still apply to my case? Any advice would be welcome

Folkerts affirms I think - though you will know better than I having recently read it - that it's the delay at the final destination that counts. Whether the delay is on the first or second leg doesn't affect the principle in the judgement, so far as I am aware.

Caz3121

The difference with Folkerts is a) the initial delays took place within the EU and b) it was an EU airline that the claim was with

I think what would be key is if this was a refuelling stop and it was a single flight number from London to Bangkok or whether this was 2 flights with 2 different flight numbers

Vauban

I know that there has been some debate on this point - and that Centipede (whose views on these matters deserve much respect) takes a contrary position to me - but my reasoning would be thus:

If we were talking about a direct flight, we would all agree compensation is due. !The fact that the carrier is a non-EU airline is immaterial, as the flight is leaving the EU. !So the point of contention is that the delay occurs in an intermediate airport outside of the EU.

However, paras 34 and 35 of Folkerts suggest (to me anyway) that this is immaterial. !It states:

34 ! ! !The concept of ‘final destination’ is defined in Article 2(h) of Regulation No 261/2004 as being the destination on the ticket presented at the check-in counter or, in the case of directly connecting flights, the destination of the last flight.

35 ! ! !It follows that, in the case of directly connecting flights, it is only the delay beyond the scheduled time of arrival at the final destination, understood as the destination of the last flight taken by the passenger concerned, which is relevant for the purposes of the fixed compensation under Article 7 of Regulation No 261/2004.

I should stress however that I am not a lawyer!