Celebrations for the improved rights of airline passengers, introduced on Thursday, may prove short-lived. Watchdogs are warning that imprecise wording has left carriers with plenty of get-out clauses.
The new European Union rules govern any flight from an EU airport, or with an EU airline. If your flight is cancelled, you are now entitled to as much as €600 (£428) in compensation, as well as a 100% refund. If your flight has been delayed for at least five hours, you can now demand a 100% refund if you decide not to wait. If you do wait, you are entitled to food, phone calls and, for overnight delays, accommodation. If the airline overbooks, those “bumped” could also claim up to £428.
Holiday Which? says: “This is a remarkably pro-consumer piece of legislation, but experience suggests that some airlines will dispute every single point. Travellers must persist with complaints. The airline industry has been utterly cossetted for far too long. It’s about time it was brought into line.”
However, the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) warns that the phrasing leaves the law open to abuse: “An airline does not have compensate
if the cancellation is beyond its control. Exceptional circumstances include weather and strikes, and ‘unexpected flight-safety shortcomings’ — an ambiguous category that companies could exploit.”
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EasyJet forecasts confusion. “Last week, the National Air Traffic Services went down for two hours causing flight delays and cancellations,” says the airline. “That was clearly beyond our control, but what about the knock-on effects that could continue for days? It’s not crystal clear. This is a bad piece of legislation that will cause conflict between airlines and their customers.”
Airlines will challenge the compensation levels in the European Court of Justice this autumn. The AUC adds: “They want compensation capped to the cost of the ticket. But we had one case where a carrier cancelled a service from Barcelona and refunded the passenger £50, but the only replacement flight he could find cost £600.”
For a breakdown of the new rules, contact the AUC: 020 7240 6061, www.auc.org.uk