EU Court: Airlines must refund booking fees after flight cancellations

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has issued an important ruling that strengthens passenger rights in cases of flight cancellations. The Court confirmed that when a flight is cancelled, airlines must refund the full amount paid by the passenger, including any booking or service fees charged by ticket resellers or online travel agencies.

This applies even when the ticket was purchased through an intermediary such as Opodo or another online booking platform.

Key takeaway for passengers

If your flight is cancelled and you booked your ticket through an intermediary, the airline must refund:

• The airfare
• Taxes and surcharges
• The booking or agency fee charged by the intermediary

In short: the airline is responsible for refunding the total price you paid, not just the base ticket price. (Even if the airline claims they don’t know the exact amount that the intermediary charges.)

Details of the court case (C-45/24)

The ruling stems from case C-45/24, which involved several passengers who purchased a return ticket from Vienna (Austria) to Lima (Peru).

• The flight was operated by KLM
• The tickets were purchased via Opodo, an online travel agency
• After the flight was cancelled, KLM refunded the ticket price
• However, KLM excluded Opodo’s service fee of approximately €95

The passengers challenged this partial refund.

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that KLM must also refund the €95 agency fee, even though that fee was charged by Opodo and not directly by the airline.

Why airlines are responsible for reseller fees

According to the Court, when an airline allows its tickets to be sold by an intermediary, it implicitly accepts that:

• The intermediary has a commercial relationship with the airline
• The intermediary may charge a service or agency fee on top of the ticket price

Importantly, the Court clarified that airlines do not need to know the exact amount of the intermediary’s fee

As the Court explained:

It is not necessary for the airline to know the exact amount of the agency commission. Otherwise, the protection of passengers provided by EU legislation would be weakened and the attractiveness of using the services of an intermediary reduced.

What this ruling means for passengers

This judgment applies broadly to flight cancellations within the scope of EU Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, commonly referred to as EU261.

If your flight is cancelled and you are entitled to a refund:

• The airline must refund the total price you paid
• This includes fees charged by online travel agencies or ticket resellers
• The way you booked your ticket does not reduce your refund rights

Important note: refund vs compensation

This ruling does not affect the current flight compensation rules.

• Flight compensation refers to financial compensation for flights delayed by at least 3 hours or cancelled less than 14 days before departure, when the disruption was caused by the airline.
• A ticket refund means receiving back the money you paid for your flight ticket. This applies when a flight is cancelled and you did not take an alternative flight offered by the airline (either because no alternative was offered or you did not accept it).

In some cases, passengers may be entitled to both flight compensation and a ticket refund for the same flight.

How to claim flight compensation and ticket refund

Submit your claim today on Flight-Delayed.com — we have been helping passengers retrieve their money from airlines since 2010. We take care of everything for you, including:

• creating a strong documentation for you, based on premium weather and aviation data
• evaluating your case based on the air passenger rights regulations and other, similar claims
• reaching out to the airline and negotiating with them
• if needed, our lawyers will even take your case to court and find for your rights there

We do this all based on a 'no win, no fee' principle — we take a percentage of the retrieved amount only if we win your case.

Customer reviews

See what passengers say about Flight-Delayed.com and how we helped them get compensation for delayed and cancelled flights.

It took some time but I did receive compensation from Ryanair that I would never have got if I didn't use this company.
- Benjamin

Flight-Delayed.com made it easy to claim the compensation. Had tried to claim first myself but the Airline didn't even bother to even respond.
- customer

Easy, kept me updated, took it to court and won, recovered some funds from a delay. Did not spam me or inconvenience me in any way, I just submitted and they sorted it, persisting for over 6 months.
- Greg