Brussels, 21/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - As thousands of travellers remain stuck in European stations and airports because of continuing disruption as a result of snow falls, the European Commission announced on Tuesday 22 December that it would very shortly convene a meeting of those in charge of Europe's airports. The situation is “unacceptable” and “must never be allowed to happen again”, said Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas through his spokeswoman. The blame, the Commission suggests, lies with the airports. They now have to “get serious about” extreme weather conditions and build them into contingency planning. The infrastructure available to airlines, this is, time slots and ground handling, “seem, at this stage to be a 'weak link' in a chain which, under pressure, is contributing to severe disruption”, Kallas says. The new airports package which the Commission will bring forward before the summer next year will address these system failings after consulting the sector.
The Commission will also, if necessary, spell out minimum service obligations to be provided by airports. The same is likely to go for rail infrastructure managers, too, in order to ensure a minimum level of quality and service at all times. The airports package, which is currently being prepared, could include measures setting minimum ground handling standards which airports would be required to provide, said Kallas' spokeswoman Helen Kearns. She said that the Commission would await the meeting with airport bosses to determine where the weaknesses were and how to respond to them.
On Tuesday, after six consecutive days of poor weather, London Heathrow Airport and Frankfurt Airport appeared to be the main centres of chaos. 139 arrivals and 136 departures were cancelled at the main German airport on Tuesday, mainly domestic and European flights. It was expected that long-haul flights would operate as normal. Heathrow announced that it would be able to operate 30% of scheduled flights until 6.00 on Wednesday morning. The other European airports have one by one re-opened their runways but operators have warned that a return to normal service would be difficult before Christmas.
Sector looks after passengers. On Tuesday, the Commission called on both passengers and companies to act with restraint and to show understanding each for the other: passengers have to understand the difficulties being faced by carriers and carriers have to take their obligation of care for passengers seriously. From Tuesday, the sector has begun to get organised. Passengers hoping to travel to the United Kingdom but stranded at Belgium's Zaventem Airport were due to be taken to England by bus and ferry from Tuesday afternoon. Frankfurt airport has called in clowns to entertain the some 1,000 passengers who have been stuck since Sunday. Germany and Switzerland have put in place a system for exchanging domestic travel tickets: passengers whose flights have been cancelled could exchange their tickets for a train ticket to the same destination. Charleroi Airport, Belgium's second largest, has advised passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before departure times, and a press release from Lufthansa on the Zaventem Airport site recommended that passengers hoping to travel from Brussels to Frankfurt should try to travel by car or train. In the United Kingdom, when flights were cancelled, operators were offering to take care of reservation of hotels and guaranteeing reimbursement of costs (up to £150 for hotels), meals and taxis. Most airports advised passengers to contact their airlines before travelling to the airport.
On the railways, the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) said that most international journeys could still be made despite the poor weather conditions. In France, the SNCF cancelled less than 1% of high speed trains and delays were generally under one hour. Some railway companies have set up free emergency hotlines for their customers. Eurostar, following speed restrictions (causing each journey to take two hours longer than usual) has not been able to run all the trains scheduled, and has asked its clients to amend their travel arrangements if their journeys are not essential. On Tuesday afternoon, the situation had barely improved: the rail operator was warning of very long delays, probably of more than three hours.
Few reactions for consumers' rights organisations. In the face of the chaos, European consumers' rights organisations have struggled to make themselves heard. BEUC, the European Consumers' Organisation, has highlighted the right to information, advising passengers to ask for all possible information through the Europe Direct, the central information service (the centre is open every day of the week, its telephone number is 00 800 67 89 10 11).
UK associations have been critical that travellers' rights have not been fully applied and have set up their own information centre for national rail traffic. The European Passengers' Federation (EPF) has also said it has had little information on complaints by passengers. It has stressed, however, the need to examine what the exact difference is between delay or cancellation due to acts of God - which relieve operators of the requirement to pay compensation - and the current situation. For the EPF and the Commission, the current snowfall was foreseeable. It will be for national authorities to decide on this issue. At this point, 14 of the 25 EU member states which have a rail network have taken advantage of exemptions for which there is provision in European legislation (see EUROPE 9540). (A.By./transl.rt)