When airlines go bankrupt, passengers have currently nearly no recourse against the airline to recover the money of their unused ticket or to obtain repatriation if they are stranded abroad. According to two studies mandated by the European Commission, 79 European airlines went bankrupt between 2000 and 2008, leaving hundred thousands passengers stranded abroad, or for those that had not yet started their journey, without reimbursement. In the last months, there were 14 other failures of European airlines, among which the bankruptcies of MYair and SkyEurope have caused important difficulties over the summer.

In the wake of the economic crisis, European airlines are announcing an operating loss of 2.9 billion euros for 2009, 50% greater than the previous highest-ever loss figure in 2001, with already thousands of job cuts. Given this worrying situation and long term challenges for air transport, ECTAA considers that it is urgent and indispensable to put in place a mechanism to protect passengers in case of airline failure.

Said President Akis Kelepeshis: “We need a contingency plan for our customers in order to provide adequate protection”. He further stressed that “there is a big consumer protection gap; while IATA agents are required to provide bonding and tour operators need to provide financial guarantees under European legislation on package travel to protect customers against their financial failure, there is no such protection against airline failures for customers with seat only tickets.”

The European Commissioner for Transport has recognized the importance of the problem and announced that the European Commission is working on a solution. In the European Parliament, where the issue was discussed on 7 October, there is a consensus across the Parliament's main political groups that the European Union needs to do more to help passengers stranded by bankrupt airlines. ECTAA welcomes these first steps and urges the European institutions to act swiftly to put in place an adequate protection mechanism.

ECTAA regroups the national associations of travel agents and tour operators of 30 European countries, of which 25 are within the European Union. Altogether it represents 80.000 enterprises.