Court of Justice rules on causal link between extraordinary circumstance (airport security delays) and the delay of a subsequent flight scheduled on the same day with the same aircraft under Regulation (EC) 2061/2004 (NI and HZ v European Air Charter AG
EU Law analysis: The Court of Justice found that, where the carrier opts to delay a flight to await passengers who have not cleared security, due to a problem at security, it cannot then claim that subsequent delay to flights in the rotation were caused by extraordinary circumstances and therefore not eligible for compensation. The decision to delay the original flight in the rotation, which was not a decision that the carrier was obliged to make, broke the chain of causation between the extraordinary circumstance and the subsequent delay to later flights in the same rotation. The decision underlines the need for a carrier who wishes to rely on the Regulation (EC) 261/2004 Article 5(3) compensation exemption to demonstrate a causal link between the extraordinary circumstance and the subsequent flight delay, which has not been broken by subsequent decisions or events. Written by Kathryn Ward, Of Counsel (Consultant) at DLA Piper UK LLP.