The European Commission is making a review of its rules on compensation due to passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled, with the fear that the generous protections that travelers within the EU enjoy can.
Passengers in Europe currently enjoy the strongest system of the world of consumer rights and compensation, thanks to a piece of EU legislation known as EU261.
Entted in 2005, the legislation comes widely in two parts: duty of care and compensation.
The duty of care grants responsibilities of the airlines, such as offering an alternative if a flight is canceled beforehand, or provides food and accommodation to passengers whose flights suffer long delays.
Compensation is, as the name implies, payments due to passengers whose flights suffer long delays, usually from two hours late for short -distance flights, or cancel.
Read also: What are your rights if your flight is delayed or canceled?
ATHHOSHOUAG Details of the commission’s review, which has been pressed by airlines, have not yet been revealed, it is feared that the current rules will be diluted.
Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the EU Transportation and Tourism Commissioner, said: “Negotiations on the reform of passenger rights are advancing.
“We cannot create rules that exceed the industry with financial burns, which run the risk of retaining growth. Therefore, we need to balance financial stability for airlines with strong protections for passengers.”
His words have been interpreted by many to mean that the EU intends to reduce customer protections in the airlines.
Anton Radchenko, CEO of Airadvisor, Air passenger lawyer and consumer rights lawyer said: “The proposition changes are not intended to strengthen the EU261, quite the opposite.
“If they are adopted, passengers would no longer be eligible for compensation after a three -hour delay. Instead, they must wait five hours on short distance flights, nine hours on medium swirl routes and a wobbly beans of beans of beans of beans of beans of beans beans beans beans beans.
“Twelve hours of waiting, or at a foreign airport, without support, and not a single euro in return. It is clear: this proposal does not fix EU261. It destroys it.
“The impact of this change will be harder on the most vulnerable travelers on tight budgets that cannot pay private insurance.”
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Airlines, as expected, are more in favor of a change in the rules, arguing that EU261 is too restrictive.
Ryanair’s head, Michael O’Leary, says that the rules end up who cost the passengers an additional € 7 per flight, the airlines transmit the cost to customers, while Carsten Spohr, executive director of the Lufthansa group, told the Independent’s newspaper: “Passenpaperent: winning profits.”
The changes have some supporters in addition to the airlines, however, the travel journalist based in the United Kingdom, Simon Calder, argues in the Independent that the current rules need a reform, writing: “The legislation was poorly written in the first offer of Pupidlan of” extra no, no, no, no, no, no, no noo node “the compensation hook.
“A series of frankly strange judicial judgments have made the rules absurdly generous in some cases. However, the application is so haplzarded that many people feel to obtain the care and compensation they deserve.”
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Key Points of EU261
The rules cover the airlines that are registered in the EU such as Ryanair-O flights of Ryanair or Schengen with headquarters in Ireland that take off from an EU country or the Schengen area. From Brexit, the rules no longer apply to the United Kingdom, but the British government has “copied and stuck” in the United Kingdom legislation.
The part of the legislation of care means that the airlines are supposed to deal with the passengers stranded offering them food, accommodation if necessary and helps with trips to Onard.
Actually, this part of the legislation is not well monitored and passengers are often simply to make their own arrangements for accommodation and alternative trips and present compensation claims to the airline later. However, airlines routinely provide soft drinks, usually in the form of food coupons to passengers whose flights are delayed.
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If your flight is canceled more than 14 days before your travel date, you have the right to choose to bet well your money, get the next Avia or change the complete reservation for a later date. Actually, many airlines sacrifice coupons instead of reimbursements, and deliberate make the process of opting to obtain real money is as complicated as possible.
If your flight is canceled less than 14 days before the exit, you have the right to compensation, from € 200 to € 600 depending on the flight duration. The airlines do not always clarify it to the passengers.
If your flight is delayed, you can be entitled to compensation, depending on the length of the delay and if you travel short or long distance.
The compensation will be € 250 for short flights, € 400 for longer and up to € 600 flights for flights that cover more than 3,500 kilometers.
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