Dear Colleague,
We set out below a short summary of a recent Israeli court judgment involving aviation law, which may be of an interest to you. The judgement concerns three issues: the airline's duty to notify passengers of any change in a flight schedule; the airline's duty to do everything in its power to help passengers make it to their connecting flight; the division of responsibility between airline and travel agent for damages caused to passengers.
Small Claim No. 15839-06-17 Ben Shushan et al v. Turkish Airlines et al
The plaintiffs purchased tickets from a travel agent, EasyGo Travel & Tourism ("EasyGo") for a two segment flight, operated by Turkish airlines ("Turkish"), from Tel-Aviv to San Francisco, with a layover in Istanbul. The plaintiffs were expected to arrive at Istanbul Airport one hour and twenty minutes before the scheduled departure time of the flight to San Francisco.
The flight from Tel-Aviv to Istanbul arrived thirty minutes later than scheduled. When the plaintiffs reached the flight gate for the San Francisco flight, they were told by Turkish representatives that the flight was fully booked. The plaintiffs were then issued tickets to fly the next day and were sent on their own to find Turkish's service counter at Istanbul Airport for help with accommodation for the night and other ground assistance services.
The plaintiffs (an elderly couple in their 70's) were unable to locate the counter After searching for 5 hours to no avail and going through passport control to no purpose, they stayed overnight on a bench waiting for their rescheduled flight to San Francisco.
The plaintiffs argued that Turkish was aware that they were on their way to the connecting flight and should have been more cautious when boarding the aircraft and causing over-booking. Further, Turkish did not call for volunteers ready to waive their seats for consideration and neglected the plaintiffs in a foreign airport without providing any ground assistance services, thus failing to comply with the provisions of the Israeli Aviation Services Law (Compensation and Assistance for Cancellation of Flight or Changes in its Conditions), 2012.
Turkish sent a third-party notice to EasyGo, contending that EasyGo had been notified by Turkish 4.5 months prior to the departure date that the flight from Tel-Aviv to Istanbul had been rescheduled to leave ten minutes later, yet failed to inform the plaintiffs.
It was agreed, as a matter of fact, that EasyGo did not inform the plaintiffs of the change in the departure time nor offer them alternative flights, since EasyGo decided that a 10 minute delay was insignificant.
Judgment:
The Court held that the layover time between flights was too short, despite complying with airport policy, and that Turkish had a duty to draw the plaintiffs' attention to the short layover so that they could choose a different flight.
The Court noted that Turkish had a duty to do everything within its ability to assist the plaintiffs to board their connecting flight to San Francisco, yet did nothing. The Court noted further that on the following day, Turkish delayed the departure of the San Francisco flight by almost an hour in order to allow passengers from other flights to board the flight.
Finally, the Court held that after the plaintiffs had missed their flight to San Francisco, Turkish had a duty to take proper care of the plaintiffs rather than merely issue alternative flight tickets and send them on their way without any guidance or assistance.
The Court found Turkish was responsible for all the damages caused to the plaintiffs, but that EasyGo should bear 25% of the responsibility for negligently failing to inform the plaintiffs of the change in the departure time of the flight from Tel-Aviv and the risk of missing their continuing flight.
Decisions of the small claims courts do not constitute binding precedents, but may be referred to by other courts in their rulings.
If you have any questions or require further information on this judgement or the topics concerned, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yours sincerely,
Hugh Kowarsky, Adv. Eyal Doron, Adv.
S. Horowitz & Co.
