Judgment_paragraph 22 · KU and Others v SATA International – Azores Airlines SA (C-308/21)

22Since fuel is essential to the carriage of passengers by air, refuelling operations fall, in principle, within the scope of the normal exercise of an air carrier’s activity. Thus a technical issue which arises during a refuelling operation performed in collaboration with the staff of the air carrier concerned can constitute an event inherent in the normal exercise of that activity (see, by analogy, judgment of 4 April 2019, Germanwings, C‑501/17, EU:C:2019:288, paragraph 30).