Jurisdiction in Contract of Air Transport Cases

Article 33 of the 1999 Montreal Convention provides the rules to determine the competent court to hear liability claims against the air carrier in transnational air carriage contracts. Passengers are entitled to choose among four different fora, plus another one for damages resulting from a passenger’s death or injury. Furthermore, at the EU level, Regulation 261/2004 has established a system of compensations in case of flight cancellation or long delay. The Court of Justice of the EU found that, whereas Regulation 261/2004 tackles damages which are almost identical for all the passengers, redressing them in terms of standardised compensations, the Montreal Convention provides addresses potential further individual damages to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. A passenger is entitled to ask both the remedies, yet the rules to identify the court having jurisdiction are different between them.