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Recently I took a two-leg flight connection entirely inside the EU. The flight A --> B ended up delayed, and as a result I missed the B --> C connection. The airline rebooked me and I arrived at C a day late.

I applied for the EU compensation, but the airline refused. I would like to complain to the "national authority". According to the EU guidance, it should be the "national authority in the country where the incident took place". A, B and C are all in different countries. Which of them is the proper one to lodge the complaint?

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  • Can you please edit in the names of the countries and the airlines involved? A, B and C is not very clear.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jan 7 at 17:56
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    A bit of background: A is Helsinki, and the airline cited "weather conditions" as the reason for denying compensation. The actual story as I understood from the pilot announcements was that one of the hold doors froze up and the ground staff had to thaw it. The airport was otherwise open and other flights were not affected. My instinct is that this should not count as extraordinary circumstance, but I would be happy to stand corrected.
    – stranger
    Commented Jan 7 at 18:02
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    It is not always needed but it makes a question easier to read and as such more likely to get answered.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jan 7 at 18:15
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    Did you buy both legs of the flight on a single ticket? That's important, as if they were on separate tickets then the airline has no responsibility for your missed connection.
    – thelem
    Commented Jan 8 at 21:33
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    @thelem Yes, it was a single ticket.
    – stranger
    Commented Jan 9 at 9:07

2 Answers 2

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Considering your comment, you should complain to the Finnish authority because the incident took place in Finland.
In my opinion it also makes more sense. Imagine Finnish authorities better prepared to judge over a frozen door incident than Maltese or Cypriot ones.

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According to Interpretative Guidelines for EC 261 which were helpfully linked in this question it seems the complaint should be filed in B.

In the annex on the last page they give an almost identical example:

"Departure from an EU MS [Member State] A (Flight 1), transfer in an EU MS B to an EU final destination C (Flight 2). According to Article 16(1), the competent NEB [National Enforcement Body] is the one of MS B. The amount of compensation is calculated on the basis of the whole journey."

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