AIR BALTIC CORPORATION AS V VALSTS ROBEZSARDZE

Case C-575/12, Court of Justice of the European Union, 4 September 2014

Aviation law - EU law - Uniform visa - Validity of a uniform visa affixed to a travel document which has been cancelled - Border checks - Entry conditions - National legislation requiring a valid visa affixed to a valid travel document - Reference for a preliminary ruling - Regulation (EC) No 810/2009, articles 24(1) and 34 - Regulation (EC) No 562/2006, articles 5(1) and 13(1)

This was a request for a preliminary ruling from a Latvian administrative court, adjudicating the defendant border control authorities' decision to impose an administrative fine on Air Baltic for transporting to Latvia a person who did not have the travel documents necessary to cross the border. On 8 October 2010 Air Baltic had transported to Latvia, on a flight from Moscow to Riga, an Indian citizen who, at border control at Riga airport, produced one valid Indian passport without a uniform visa and one cancelled Indian passport, to which a multiple entry uniform visa was affixed, issued by the Italian Republic and valid from 25 May 2009 to 25 May 2014. The cancelled passport contained the following annotation: "Passport cancelled. Valid visas in the passport are not cancelled". The Indian citizen was refused entry into Latvian territory on the ground that he did not have a valid visa, per national legislation requiring visas to be affixed to valid passports. A fine was imposed on Air Baltic on the ground that by transporting the Indian citizen, Air Baltic had committed the administrative offence of transporting to Latvia a person without the travel documents necessary to cross the border.