A diverted flight is no reason for compensation, says EU Court

Airlines are not obliged to compensate passengers if a flight is diverted and lands at a different airport than initially planned, the EU’s top court ruled on Thursday, after a customer sued Austrian Airlines over such an incident. However, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg said the carrier must offer to cover the cost of a transfer either to the original destination airport or to another nearby destination agreed with the passenger. “The diversion of a flight to an airport serving the same town, city or region does not grant the passenger a right to compensation for cancellation of a flight,” judges said. The ruling came after a customer sued Austrian Airlines for 250 euros ($301) in 2019 after his flight landed in Schoenefeld airport outside Berlin with a delay of nearly an hour instead of the city’s central Tegel airport.<br/>