GAHAN V EMIRATES; BUCKLEY v EMIRATES

[2017] EWCA Civ 1530, Court of Appeal, Lady Justice Arden, Lord Justice Lewison and Lord Justice McCombe, 12 October 2017

Carriage (air) - Delay of flight from EU airport resulting in missed connecting flight at non-EU airport - Substantial delay in arrival at final destination - Non-community carrier - Non-EU airports - Passengers' rights to compensation for delay - Regulation (EC) 261/2004, article 7

In these joined cases, the claimants had been passengers on flights from Manchester to Bangkok or Sydney, via Dubai. The defendant in both cases was Emirates, an airline established in UAE and therefore a non-Community carrier. The Civil Aviation Authority and the IATA were interveners. The flights from Manchester had been delayed with the effect that the connecting flight was missed. The passenger to Bangkok had received compensation in respect of the first flight, delayed by three hours 56 minutes, but none calculated by reference to the connecting flight. Her arrival at the destination was delayed by 13 hrs 37 minutes. The passengers to Sydney had been delayed by less than three hours to Dubai and therefore not awarded any compensation under the Regulation, although their substitute connecting flight arrived 16 hours 39 minutes late. At first instance, two judges in Liverpool County Court had come to opposite conclusions on the issue of compensation for the missed connecting flight and late arrival at the final destination.