ECTAA strongly welcomes the call, in the report of MEP Georges BACH adopted by the TRAN Parliamentary Committee on 18 September, for the European Commission to initiate legislation to protect passengers against airline failure.
The European Parliament previously called the European Commission in November 2009 to take action to protect passengers against airline failure. But the European Commission announced during summer 2012 that it does not intend to revise or introduce new legislation to address this issue. The renewed call of the TRAN Parliamentary Committee in its report on passenger rights in all modes of transport shows the seriousness of passengers’ lack of protection.
Airline insolvencies in the last decade have affected some 1.8 million people in Europe, among which the vast majority did not have any protection, with an average cost per passenger up to €800.
The situation has worsened in the last months with already 9 European airlines having gone into bankruptcy since the beginning of 2012, including large airlines such as Spanair, Malev and Windjet. The airline industry is casting a loss of €1.1 billion for European airlines in 2012.
When an airline ceases operating, many passengers have no recourse against the airline to recover the money of their unused ticket or to obtain repatriation if they are stranded abroad. There is a big consumer protection gap: while a passenger is fully protected if his/her flight is part of a package travel, a passenger with a seat-only ticket is left unprotected against the airline insolvency.
Six months after Malev’s failure, at least 100.000 requests for refunds of unflown flights are still trapped within insolvency proceedings. They have just been further jeopardised by a recent challenge before the Hungarian courts of a secured lender to Malev.
Said President of ECTAA: “The critical need for legislation to protect passengers in case of airline insolvency is unfortunately confirmed every time an airline goes bankrupt. It is time that the European Commission takes stock of the issue and finally responds to the European Parliament’s call for legislation”.
