On or about May 2007, the plaintiff visited the travel agency of the defendants and received a brochure and a price-list in order to get informed about the defendant’s travel packages. During the summer of 2007, the plaintiff, together with her family, decided to travel to Disneyland - Paris, through the defendant’s travel agency. According to the information indicated in the brochure she received in May 2007, the round trip flights from Larnaca to Paris and from Paris to Larnaca were both “direct flights” and in particular indicated in the brochure as Larnaca – Paris – Larnaca. The plaintiff made reservations and one day before the flight (16.7.2007) she visited the offices of the defendant, she paid the price for five (5) Larnaca – Paris – Larnaca round trip tickets and received a written schedule with information on the package travel she paid. The plaintiff noticed that, on the written schedule she just received, there was an indication that the flight was going to last 5 hours and 30 minutes (a direct flight from Larnaca to Paris is approximately 4 hours). The plaintiff immediately asked the defendant’s employee why the flight will take so long, since when buying the tickets, she had in her mind that the flight was going to be a “direct flight” and if any intermediate stops applied she considered it obvious that she should get informed accordingly. The defendant’s employee reassured her that she should not worry about it as the time on the schedule referred to the time difference between the two countries. On the day of the flight (17.7.2007), the plaintiff, while waiting at the gate for boarding, she realized, for the first time, that the flight was going to have an intermediate stop in Salonica, Greece. Indeed, the flight had an intermediate stop in Salonica for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. During the intermediate stop the passengers, including the plaintiff and her family, remained seated in the airplane, new passengers were boarded, the airplane got refueled and they left for Paris. The same intermediate stop took place during the return flight Paris- Larnaca. The plaintiff filed a complaint.
The defendants alleged that in November 2006 the airline company made available to the defendants certain seats for the particular flight that at the time was scheduled by the airline company to be a “direct flight”. At a later stage the airline company decided to change those “direct flights” to flights with an intermediate stop in Salonica. The change was made in November 2006, before the plaintiff made her reservations and paid for the tickets. The change of the flight was the reason why the defendants indicated on the price-list that the price was a “special offer”, without, however, explaining on the brochure that such “special offer” related to a flight with an intermediate stop. The defendants, following the change to the flight, never re-printed the brochure nor attached any additional document to the brochure informing the consumers that the flight was changed from a “direct flight” to a flight with an intermediate stop.