Adviser urges EU to clamp down on airlines avoiding passenger delay payouts

An advocate general at the EU's top court recommended Thursday that airlines be required to show more than just who ordered a delay before refusing to pay compensation, in a case involving DelayFix's claim against LOT Polish Airlines over 400 euros. The passenger's July 2023 flight from Izmir to Warsaw arrived three hours and seven minutes late, following weather restrictions over Hungary and Romania and repairs in Izmir; subtracting the traffic-related delay would have dropped it below the compensation threshold.

Advocate General Rimvydas Norkus said airlines must show the underlying cause of a disruption was genuinely outside normal operations and their control, not simply that an outside authority made the delay decision. Aviation lawyers were split, with some welcoming the tighter scrutiny and others warning that airlines often have no insight into why regulators impose restrictions in the first place.

The nonbinding opinion would replace an earlier General Court ruling that let air traffic decisions qualify for exemption regardless of their underlying cause. If the full court follows the recommendation, the Warsaw court will still have to decide whether this particular passenger gets paid.

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