Kuwait Airways wins case against passenger who wanted to sue for transportation

Kuwait Airways today won at the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) in Frankfurt (Germany) in the legal dispute over the refusal to carry a passenger with an Israeli passport.
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The judges rejected the suit for transportation and compensation. The passenger had booked a flight from Frankfurt via Kuwait to Bangkok via an online portal and only later disclosed his passport details. Since he could not have obtained a transit or entry visa for the stopover in Kuwait, the airline got in direct contact with the passenger, explained the facts to him, cancelled the flight ticket in accordance with its terms and conditions, and refunded the ticket price in full.

In both negotiations, Kuwait Airways had tried to objectify the facts in court, pointing out that as a commercial enterprise it had to comply with German law, international agreements and Kuwaiti law. The company has no room for manoeuvre in this matter. Every passenger is responsible for the necessary travel documents.

The airline had even offered the passenger to organize a higher-quality direct flight at no additional cost. This would have saved him a five-and-a-half-hour transfer in Kuwait and would have brought him to his destination earlier. The passenger refused this via his lawyer. Before the current lawsuit, the passenger had already been defeated in summary proceedings in first and in second instance. 

Matthias Burkard, spokesperson for Kuwait Airways: "It is true that this campaign against our company, initiated by whomever and obviously politically motivated, has come to nothing. As a company that has been operating successfully and with pleasure in Germany for a long time, we have great respect for German jurisdiction and are glad that it is not allowing itself to be drawn into such a project. In both proceedings, the judges came to the same conclusion in their judgments, which were comprehensible to all sides, well balanced, well-founded and well-derived: Kuwait Airways acted in accordance with the laws of Germany and its home country.