The European Union's top court concluded that pets should be considered luggage, not passengers. But that was not the only aviation case on the court schedule.
“According to the Montreal Convention, other than carriage of cargo, aircrafts perform international carriage of persons and baggage,” the CJEU wrote summarizing its judgment.
“The concept of ‘persons’ corresponds to that of ‘passengers,’ with the result that a pet cannot be considered to be a ‘passenger,’” it said. “Consequently, for the purposes of air travel, a pet is falls within the concept of ‘baggage’ and the compensation for the damage resulting from the loss of a pet is subject to the liability rules for baggage.”
It noted that the passenger had not submitted a special declaration of interest in delivery, a formal step that involves paying an additional fee, that would have allowed them to increase the liability limit for the precious cargo.
It said it found that EU rules on animal welfare protection did not preclude pets from being considered “baggage” for the purposes of aviation litigation, “upon the condition that full regard is paid to animal welfare requirements while they are transported.”
3·4 days ago