Brussels, 17/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - European airports are increasing the pressure for a European solution to be found on the rules on single items of luggage allowed on flights. The European Parliament is eager to find a solution to this situation that is having a negative impact on airport business.
At the Regional Airports Conference in Lyons (France) on 17 April, the director-general of ACI Europe, Olivier Jankovec, deplored the absence of a “coherent and proactive European policy for supporting regional airports”. ACI Europe would particularly like the question on the single item of luggage rule to be taken into account during the review of European Regulation 261/2004 on airline passenger rights (see EUROPE 10804). Philip Bradbourn MEP (ECR, United Kingdom) has already raised this problem in a previous own initiative report. He also attended this conference and pointed out that “airport retail purchases need to be treated as essential items that passengers should be allowed to take on board, in addition to the cabin baggage allowances set by airlines”. He states, then, that Parliament was clear on the need to ban the unfair one bag practice by certain low-cost airlines: “My colleagues in the European Parliament and I have great concerns that these practices are detrimental to the consumer and we will be looking carefully at the new legislative proposal from the European Council commission on passenger rights to see that it addresses this issue once and for all”. (MD/transl.fl)