Barrot to clamp down on airlines

Jacques Barrot, the European commissioner for transport, is set to clamp down on airlines ignoring his bill of rights for air passengers.

Introduced two years ago, the rules on compensation for victims of overbooking, cancellations and delays have failed to live up to the claims made for them.

Next month the European Commission will publish results of an independent study reviewing the allegedly poor implementation of rules across member states. Barrot is expected to use the opportunity to tighten legislation.

Current EU rules introduced in February 2005 set out levels of compensation for passengers unable to board both scheduled and charter flights to and from the EU. Rules on passenger rights introduced in 1991 only applied to scheduled flights departing from the EU.

Levels of compensation were increased from €150-€300 to a range of €250-€600, depending on the length of the flight. New rules stated that financial compensation should be offered and alternative flights arranged in cases where seats were overbooked or cancelled. For delays of longer than two hours, passengers should be offered meals and refreshments. In the event of a wait of five hours or more, refunds should be offered.

The airline industry reacted angrily, claiming that the new rules would make them liable for all delays and cancellations, even those occuring in circumstances beyond their control. But Barrot’s rules were upheld by the European Court of Justice at the beginning of last year, following a legal challenge from the International Air Transport Association and the European Low-Fares Airline Association.

"There are a lot of grey areas in the legislation," says Oliver Aust, spokesperson for budget airline Easyjet. "Companies struggle because if something happens in the supply chain, like when air traffic controllers in France went on strike, we have to pay compensation."

Questioned on the extent to which airlines are complying with EU legislation, Françoise Humbert, communications manager at the Association of European Airlines, says: "The rules are not always clear. They [the Commission] had to summarise the legislation as best they could and that gave passengers the impression that they could always ask for compensation whatever happened."

Aust claims that airlines have been unfairly subjected to legislation. "It’s law, so we comply with it," he says. "But we believe that, before the Commission beefs up rules, it has to look at other modes of transport. At the moment, we are the only mode to have to deal with such a rule. We need to make sure there’s no distortion of competition."

Jacques Barrot, the European commissioner for transport, is set to clamp down on airlines ignoring his bill of rights for air passengers.