Flight delay and arrival time: what actually counts

For flight delay compensation under EU261 and CJEU case law, arrival at the final destination at least three hours late matters, together with the other eligibility conditions. Departure delay alone is not enough: the aircraft may recover time. Serbia/ECAA needs a separate legal-basis check; this does not mean later CJEU rulings automatically bind every flight from Serbia.

The opposite can also happen: departure may be under three hours late, but because of a missed connection the whole journey may end much later. Look at the total journey under the same booking, not only the first segment that caused trouble.

The final destination is the airport in the booking to which the airline was supposed to bring you. If you have one booking Belgrade - Frankfurt - Lisbon, the assessment does not stop in Frankfurt. It looks at when you reached Lisbon.

If the tickets were bought separately, each ticket is usually assessed separately. That may weaken a claim for the consequences of the second flight, but it does not remove rights on the first flight if that flight also arrived late enough or created waiting costs.

In Germanwings, C-452/13, the CJEU links arrival to the opening of at least one aircraft door, provided passengers are permitted to leave. Touchdown and reaching the parking stand are different times. The test does not wait for the last passenger to leave or for baggage collection.

If touchdown is 2 hours 50 minutes after scheduled arrival and a door opens with permission to leave another 15 minutes later, the relevant delay is 3 hours 5 minutes. That can change the threshold assessment, but does not by itself establish EU261 coverage or carrier responsibility.

Waiting aboard may also raise a separate question about water, meals or other necessary assistance. Assess that separately from fixed compensation; do not import another country's tarmac-wait rules into this legal framework.

Useful evidence includes the airline app, email with new timing, arrivals-board photo, airport data, baggage messages and your own note of when the aircraft doors opened. Do not rely only on the scheduled timetable.

If the airline claims arrival was under three hours late, ask for the exact time and its basis. Does the record mean touchdown, parking or first door opening with permission to leave? An app may show touchdown only. Note the time zone, source and when you recorded it; photos, messages and airport data help cross-check each other but do not automatically prove door-opening time.

For a missed connection under one booking, the key question is when you reached the last airport in the plan or the reasonable replacement arranged by the airline. Keep the original and new itinerary because without them it is unclear what is being compared.

If you were rerouted to another airport, ask who organizes transfer to the original destination. Arrival time may include the practical completion of the journey, especially if the airline itself changed the arrival airport.

In the claim, state scheduled arrival time, actual arrival time, evidence source and whether the journey was one booking. If there is a connection, list all segments and explain which segment caused the late arrival.

If the case is close to three hours, do not round for or against yourself. Let Kasni compares the schedule, arrival-time source and applicable legal framework before assessing the threshold and cause. Where records conflict, keep both versions instead of choosing the more favourable one.