Anecdotal evidence points to abuse of new rights rules
The European Commission is planning to define what constitutes a delay in a revision of its controversial passenger rights legislation as airline groups launch action against the body for deliberately misleading passengers.
Representatives from several European Union members speaking at a recent air law conference at Leuven University, Brussels, cited anecdotal evidence of airlines using replacement aircraft in the event of a technical fault and then describing the result as a delayed flight rather than a cancellation.
Under the passenger rights rules, brought into force in February, cancelled flights are subject to automatic pay-outs from the airline, whereas delays only require mandatory assistance such as food and drink. Peter Faross, head of users' rights unit at the EC's Directorate-General for Transport and Energy, says: "We didn't define a delay in the regulation, so this will produce some future work."
The International Air Transport Association failed to agree on a definition of a delay when drafting the Montreal convention in 1999. Yet Faross says: "in discussions to come, we will define a delay because we want to transpose this regulation in a harmonised way."
The EC held a meeting earlier this month with the national enforcement agencies after it became clear that there were different interpretations of delays.
The move comes as the European ombudsman has given the EC until 31 July to answer to charges of deliberately misleading air passengers into believing delays were covered under the new rules. The charges were brought by the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) and relate to the publicity campaign mounted around the 17 February launch of the new rights.
Faross says early complaints figures mark the rules as a success. He says denied boarding complaints have almost been eliminated since the new rules came into force, but adds that national enforcement bodies have received almost 10 times as many complaints overall, largely due to the information campaign. But ERA director general Mike Ambrose says complaints are still low at only one passenger in every 75,000.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE/BRUSSELS
Source: Flight International
