EU air passenger rights fall by wayside during pandemic: report
Athens Airport - Photo By Leonid Mamchenkov
(LUXEMBOURG) - The rights of air passengers have not been safeguarded in the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report published on Tuesday by the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
Airlines are legally required to give passengers their money back if they cancel flights. But many airlines forced their customers to accept vouchers, instead, a practice which is unlawful. The EU auditors also point out that airlines and package-tour operators received billions of euros of state aid, aid which was provided without being conditional on passengers being reimbursed.
EU air transport has been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel restrictions - often imposed in an uncoordinated manner by Member States - led to 7,000 air routes being closed in the European airport network; flight cancellations affected tens of millions of passengers in the EU between March 2020 and March 2021. In cases like this, EU law gives air passengers the right to have their cancelled flight tickets reimbursed or their cancelled trips rerouted. At the same time, the unexpected discontinuation of flights caused sudden and serious liquidity problems for airlines and package-tour operators. Many Member States quickly stepped in, granting unprecedented levels of state aid to allow them to continue operating, and to rescue them from potential bankruptcy.
In the first months of the crisis, many passengers lost money to which they were entitled, the auditors found. The ECA points out that it even happened with the Member States' agreement: 15 of them, including France, the Netherlands and Belgium, adopted exceptional measures to release airlines and package-tour operators from their usual obligation to reimburse passengers.
Contrary to EU law, many passengers were obliged to accept vouchers, but these were not always protected against airline insolvency, and delayed the prospect of reimbursement. From mid-2020, airlines started reimbursing passengers. But in most cases, this took far longer than the seven days (for "flight-only" passengers) or 14 days (for travellers with a flight and accommodation package) required by legislation. The battle was even harder for those passengers who had not purchased their tickets directly from airlines. They were often 'ping-ponged' between intermediaries (such as travel agencies) and airlines, and at best received a partial or very late reimbursement. At worst, they were not reimbursed at all.
In the meantime, the European Commission approved public measures to support airlines and package-tour operators which had been seriously impacted by the COVID-19 crisis throughout the EU. And it did so in record time: 54 state aid decisions were adopted on average within 13 days from the notification, 23 of those within one week. Overall, Member States put almost €35 billion of public money on the table between March 2020 and April 2021. Air France and KLM together received over €11 bn, Lufthansa over €6 bn, and TUI, TAP and SAS over €1 bn each – and the list goes on.
However, Member States did not explicitly make the granting of aid to airlines contingent upon the reimbursement of passengers, even though the Commission, within the scope of its limited possibilities in the area of passenger rights, did make it clear that they could do so. Ultimately, Member States left the reimbursement of air passengers solely in the hands of the airlines, which followed their own priorities with regard to the use of the state aid. This led to air passengers being treated very differently across the EU, the auditors note.
Based on their conclusions, EU auditors address specific recommendations to the European Commission to better safeguard the rights of air passengers.