This week the team has detected the early signs of a return to
normality following the lockdowns that dogged 2020 and 2021. First,
Eady J rejected a Defendant's application for its Kenyan
witness to give evidence by videolink in a package travel case;
then the German courts took an unsympathetic view of a party's
late arrival to catch her flight; and finally, the Court of Appeal
gave judgment against Ryanair in another denied boarding claim.
In the German case, the Claimant arrived at the boarding gate
some 18 minutes after the stated boarding time, and was denied
boarding. She brought a claim under Regulation (EC) No.261/2004
(the Denied Boarding Regulations), but failed in the Munich Local
Court, which held that although the aircraft was still at the gate,
and she could in fact have boarded, and although in practice it is
not uncommon for airlines to wait for passengers, to rule that a
passenger has a right to board in these circumstances would impose
too onerous
