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| Air travellers to get compensation for cancellation, delay |
| 21-Oct-2003 |
Brussels, October 15
European Union ministers and the European Parliament agreed today on rules for when — and how much — airlines have to compensate passengers for overbooking or delayed or cancelled flights.
Under the new rules, all airlines flying to and from EU airports will have to pay $700 to passengers bumped off long haul flights, $470 for medium trips and $290 for short hops. The current maximum is $350. The levels, while lower than the maximum $880 initially proposed, are still "significant" for the customers, said Italian lawmaker Giorgio Lisi, who guided the bill through parliament.
Budget airlines had argued the increases may push them into raising prices, which in many cases are lower than the compensation levels. Lisi insisted the new ceiling should be "bearable for the airline companies without leading to increases in the costs of tickets."
Passengers whose flights are canceled because of too few tickets sold or other commercial reasons — not weather, technical problems with the aircraft or strikes — would be entitled to the same payments, Lisi said.
Delays of at least two hours — for whatever reason — would also trigger automatic compensation "in a reasonable relation to the waiting time," ranging from a free meal and phone calls to a free hotel room when the next flight is a day away.
"The passenger cannot be abandoned to his own devices in the airport," said Charlotte Cederschioeld, another parliament member who worked on the bill, "Some sort of assistance has to be provided to him."
If a flight is at least five hours late, a passenger must be offered either a refund of the full ticket price if the flight no longer serves any purpose — such as getting somewhere in time for a meeting — or rebooking onto the earliest flight home.
EU officials argue the new rules would increase pressure on airlines to limit the practice of overbooking — selling more tickets than seats available — as well as to improve on-time service. An estimated 250,000 European passengers fall victim to overbooking each year.
Source: HT
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