Despite the heavy congestion at Ben Gurion Airport, some passengers arrive late for their flight. One of them is a resident of the center, whom easyJet did not put on the flight because it was late, sued her – but the court ordered her to pay NIS 2,500 in court costs.
In the statement of claim filed by the plaintiff, which was NIS 7,660, the passenger claimed that she purchased direct round-trip flight tickets from Israel to Amsterdam at a price of €154.43 per ticket. She said the flight was supposed to depart at 14 p.m., and she herself showed up at the terminal at 00:12 p.m., which she believed was long before the flight's departure time.
According to her, after passing the check-in, she made her way to the boarding gate, where she arrived at 13:30 p.m., while throughout the time she was at Ben Gurion Airport, the information screens at the terminal showed 13:45 p.m. as the closing time of the boarding gate. She claimed that when she arrived at the boarding gate, she was given a boarding pass, and she boarded the plane with several other passengers. However, after a few minutes, she and the passengers who boarded the shuttle with her were told that they had to return to the terminal because they had not received permission to board the flight.
An easyJet plane (archive), photo: Getty Images
Having no choice, the prosecutor claimed, she had to go through border control again and made her way towards the terminal. After these events, she claimed, she tried to contact easyJet's customer service in order to obtain alternative flight tickets, a refund or compensation for refusing to put her on the flight, but was refused by the defendant's representatives, who even refused to compensate her or refund her the consideration she paid for the tickets, on the grounds that her reservation contained a note about not showing up for the flight, and therefore she was not entitled to alternative flight tickets.
On the other hand, easyJet argued that the plaintiff is an adult, and therefore she is expected to acknowledge her responsibility for not showing up on the time specified in the flight ticket she issued prior to her physical arrival at the airport. "The plaintiff arrived at the scene only an hour and 45 minutes before the scheduled departure time, contrary to the common recommendation to appear 3.5-3 hours before him," the defense wrote. It was also written that despite closing the gate and removing passengers from the system as a No Show (i.e., they did not arrive at all, AK), the company's ground workers at Ben Gurion Airport tried to help the plaintiff and three other passengers who arrived after the gate was closed, and re-checked her in and even issued her a new flight ticket, so that if approval is received to put her on the plane, all the necessary preparations will be made. The company also claimed that the ground workers arranged transportation for the plaintiff in the direction of the plane by a designated shuttle, but on the way to it it turned out that permission was not given to bring her on because she was late for the flight, since the plane was already closed and ready to leave.
"Ground workers assisted the passenger." Passengers at Ben Gurion Airport (archive), photo: Yossi Zeliger
"A passenger who is late has no choice but to complain about himself"
Judge Adi Hadar, who dismissed the lawsuit, noted in his ruling that alongside the passenger's right to receive flight services from an air carrier against payment, there are various obligations that she must meet in order to execute the transaction, and perhaps the most important of all – showing up on time for the flight. "Passengers are advised to arrive at the airport a few hours before their flight. Things are even more beautiful about Ben Gurion Airport, an overcrowded airport, which is often characterized by long lines at the various stages that the passenger must pass... Unlike appearing on time for an appointment at an HMO, a court hearing or any other purpose, when it comes to a flight, as soon as the boarding gate is closed, the passenger loses his right to realize the transaction, and he can only complain about being late," the judge wrote.
The ruling continued: "If the airline waits for any latecomer, it will suffer direct and indirect economic damage due to the delay due to the claims of passengers who were late to their destination due to the delay of the flight. Unlike other areas such as buses and trains, with regard to a certain type of ticket, a passenger who is late for a flight does not have a contractual right to retroactively convert a flight ticket from the flight for which he was late to another flight, nor does he have the right under the international treaty adopted by Israel."
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