Enforcement of passengers rights and stronger regulation on refund at the core of the last TRAN Committee

The enforcement of passengers rights and the need for stronger regulation on refund, especially for persons who purchased their travel tickets via intermediary agencies or OTAs (online travel agencies). These topics have been at the core of the discussions of the TRAN (Transport and Tourism) committee, which has reunited this week in Brussels. 

At the end of November 2023, the European Commission published the Passenger Mobility Package, containing two legislative proposals regarding passengers’ rights for which TRAN is responsible. The first one focuses on the which strengthens enforcement mechanisms and, among other things, introduces rules for air passengers who have booked their flights through an intermediary. On the other hand, the second proposal concerns the passengers’ rights in the context of multimodal travel, which sets out for the first time new rules to protect travelers using different modes of transport in one trip.

“It is important to emphasise that, in general terms, the regulation must provide clarity and avoid ambiguity that, in the current situation, leads us to have to work with numerous sentences from the Court of Justice, which makes it difficult for all parties, especially passengers, to have a clear vision of what the established criteria are” explained José Luis Lozano, Director of Safety Management and Aircrew Spanish Aviation Safety and Security State Agency. 

“It also important that there are specific requirements for passengers to know how to complain to airlines when they do not see their rights satisfied – added Lozano -. In many cases, airlines do not respond, so we understand that the regulations must reinforce that part of the contact, with a simple and easy contact for the passenger in front of airlines”. 

Among the topics raised during the panel discussions, also the persons with disabilities rights’. “Having rights in paper is one thing, but implementing and enforcing them in real life is another one. There’s gaps in legislation, there’s limited personal redress, there’s lack of data, and there’s heterogeneous enforcement regimes” underlined Daniel Casas, Accessibility Officer of the European Disability Forum. Casas took the air travel as an example, stating that while all passengers receive compensations when the flight is delayed or cancelled, persons with disabilities do not get any compensation when they do not receive the appropriate assistance, when the wheelchair is broken or when the travel information is not accessible to them.

Another important point tackled by the Committee concerned the rules for online booking intermediaries. “Currently, you don’t have any EU-wide rules. Having rules on reimbursement is necessary, clear deadlines for reimbursement, and the fact that refund should be free of charge. If we regulate intermediaries, we should do it in a global approach, notably in terms of information. When you buy different airline tickets via an intermediary, you are not protected for the whole journey” highlighted Steven Berger, Senior Legal Officer Acting as Head of Consumer Rights for the The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC). 

Secretary General of the EU Travel Tech Emmanuel Mounier, on the other hand, spoke about the Commission proposal “7 plus 7 refund process”, a mechanisms that regards OTAs and airlines companies. “When you ask for a refund after a cancelled flight, the airline has 7 days to refund the money to the intermediary, and then the intermediaries have 7 days to refund back the passenger. This is a very positive step forward” explained Mounier. 

During the hearings, also the topic of innovative solutions for multimodal passengers’ rights has been raised, even if in this regard much more work has to be done, as underlined Christina Russe, Deputy Secretary General of the European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Associations. 

“We welcome the multi-modal passenger rights regulation proposal because it gives our customers the confidence to travel across all modes – commented Russe -, But we do have four issues that we would like to highlight and where we think improvements can be made. We think that the passenger should have the right to decide whether to get a refund from the carrier itself or through the intermediary with which it has booked the ticket. The refund deadlines, furthermore, are very short, seven plus seven days. We would just like to highlight that this is not in line with the existing global standard payment schedules, at least not in air transport. The second point that we wanted to make is tickets sold as part of a travel package currently not in scope. Third point concerns sharing of passenger contact details by the intermediary to the airline, so that the airline can inform about operational disruptions such as delays and cancellations. We are 100% supportive of this. Lastly, regulation has to make it very clear that these contact details cannot be used by the carrier to push commercial information”.