Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2008:145
Date: 2008-03-06
Language of the case: German
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Transport
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment Transport – Carriage by air – Regulation No 261/2004 – Common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights – Scope (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 261/2004, Art. 3(1)(a)) The concept of ‘flight’ within the meaning of Regulation No 261/2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights must be interpreted as consisting essentially in an air transport operation, being as it were a ‘unit’ of such transport, performed by an air carrier which fixes its itinerary. It follows that a journey out and back cannot be regarded as a single flight. Consequently, Article 3(1)(a) of that regulation, which provides that the regulation is to apply to passengers departing from an airport located in the territory of a Member State to which the Treaty applies, must be interpreted as not applying to the case of an outward and return journey in which passengers who have originally departed from an airport located in the territory of a Member State to which the Treaty applies travel back to that airport on a flight from an airport located in a non-member country. The fact that the outward and return flights are the subject of a single booking has no effect on the interpretation of that provision. (see paras 40, 47, 53, operative part)