This is narrowly "skewed" towards the EU audience but I hope it enjoys sufficient interest here.

The case is based on reference from two regional courts in Austria (Korneuburg) and Germany (Düsseldorf), which - facing disputes between passengers (incl. passenger rights organisations) and airlines (incl. Azurair, Corendon, Eurowings, Austrian and Lauda) - asked ECJ for ruling on the matter.

Judgement summary in what follows (personal and non-legal - everyone to draw their own conclusions please):

• a flight is to be regarded as "cancelled" if the operating carrier brings it forward by more than one hour - this gives the right to a compensation in its full amount specified in the Air Passenger Rights Regulation
• as the case involved, tour operator bookings, ECJ ruled that a passenger is considered to have a confirmed reservation based on the confirmation received by the tour operator, which must contain at least departure and destination, time of departure and arrival, and flight number - the relationship between the tour operator and the air carrier is of no relevance to the passenger in regards of the respective flights, the air carrier is free to seek compensation from the tour operator for any damages incurred
• for the purposes of serving notice for flight schedule changes, a passenger is regarded as not having been properly informed if such information was not timely transmitted by the tour operator, even if the air carrier did inform the tour operator in due time
• serving notice for flight schedule changes falls under Air Passenger Rights Regulation and not under the Directive on Electronic Commerce
• finally, ECJ reiterates that a flight is NOT to be regarded as cancelled if the operating carrier POSTPONES the time of departure by less than three hours

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