C-11/11 · 2013 · UK 261 AND EC 261
Air France SA v Heinz-Gerke Folkerts and Luz-Tereza Folkerts
On directly connecting flights, compensation follows the arrival delay at the final destination. The Grand Chamber held in 2013 that the Art. 7 sums are due where the passenger arrives three hours or more late, even where the delay on departure of the first leg stayed below the Art. 6 thresholds.
REVIEWED AGAINST RULE SET V6 AND THE CITED PRIMARY SOURCES · UPDATED 7 AUGUST 2026
- COURT
- Court of Justice of the European Union (Grand Chamber)
- CASE NUMBER
- C-11/11
- JUDGMENT
- 26 February 2013
- CITATION
- ECLI:EU:C:2013:110
What the case was about
Mrs Folkerts flew Bremen to Paris to São Paulo to Asunción on one booking. The first leg left about two and a half hours late.
That short delay caused a missed connection in Paris, and she reached Asunción about eleven hours after the scheduled time.
What it changed
- It made the single booking the unit of measurement rather than the individual leg.
- A short hop that costs a long haul connection can carry the long haul band, because distance is measured to the final ticketed destination.
- Airlines cannot answer a missed connection claim by pointing at a first leg delay that was too small to matter on its own.
SOURCES
- Case C-11/11 Air France v Folkerts, judgment of 26 February 2013 (Grand Chamber, ECLI:EU:C:2013:110) · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026
- Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 6 · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026