Sixteen major European airlines have promised to reimburse passengers within seven days of a cancellation and make information about rights clearer for customers.
The pledges come after talks with the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities after widespread complaints and concerns about cancellations and refunds during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The airlines involved in the talks were Aegean Airlines, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Easyjet, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, Norwegian, Ryanair, TAP, Vueling and Wizz Air.
Didier Reynders, justice commissioner, said: “It is good news for consumers that airlines cooperated during the dialogues, and committed to respecting passengers’ rights and improving their communication.
“In the early phase of the pandemic, some airlines pushed vouchers on passengers. They were acting against EU consumer protection rules.
“That was unacceptable. Following our joint action, I am pleased that most of them have now agreed to refund these vouchers. I call on authorities to ensure that the remaining airlines also offer a money refund for such vouchers.”
Adina Vălean, transport commissioner, added: “I welcome the fact that the bulk of the reimbursement backlog has been cleared and that all airlines concerned have committed to solve remaining issues.
“This is crucial to restoring passengers’ confidence. The recovery of the air transport sector depends on this. This is why we are also currently assessing regulatory options to reinforce passenger protection against future crisis, as foreseen in our Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy.”
Pawel Niewiadomski, president of Ectaa – the European travel agents’ and tour operators’ association – said: “This is certainly good news for both consumers and travel agents who are struggling to obtain refunds for their customers. However, it is a pity that this commitment is not extended to flights that are part of a package, which is just pushing down the problem to the tour operators. In addition, this voluntary commitment does not exempt the national enforcement bodies and the European Commission to ensure that all airlines do effectively respect EU passenger rights.”
Emmanuel Mounier, secretary-general of eu travel tech – the industry association for technology travel services – added: “The new commitments by airlines are a step in the right direction, but authorities must ensure airlines are held to their word. In this context, we are disappointed to see that certain airlines still refuse to comply with the law and refund their customers for unilaterally imposed vouchers.”
These are the commitments made by the airlines:
• remaining reimbursement backlogs have been cleared in the vast majority of cases and passengers will be refunded within seven days as required under EU law;
• passengers will be informed more clearly about their passenger rights in the event of a flight cancellation by an airline;
• airlines will give equal prominence on their websites, emails and other communication to passengers to the different options the passenger has in the event of a flight cancellation by the airline: rerouting, refund in money and – if offered by the airline – refund in a voucher;
• airlines will, in their communication to passengers, clearly distinguish flight cancellations by the airline (and the passenger’s ensuing statutory rights) from flight cancellations by the passenger (and possible contractual rights that the passenger may have in those cases under the airline’s terms and conditions of carriage);
• passengers can be given vouchers only if they expressly choose them. Most airlines agreed that unused vouchers that the passengers at the early stages of the pandemic had to accept, can be reimbursed in money if the passenger so wishes;
• passengers who booked their flight through an intermediary and have difficulties getting reimbursement from the intermediary can turn to the airline and request to be refunded directly. Airlines are expected to inform passengers about this possibility and any conditions for requesting a direct refund on their websites.
Flights booked as part of a package were not affected by this action.
Picture by Viktor Gladkov/Shutterstock