Among European Union citizens who have travelled by plane or who have travelled a long distance by train, coach, boat or ferry in the last 12 months, only 43% are aware of EU passenger rights, revealed a European Commission survey published on Monday 13 January.
Based on a sample of 27, 973 EU citizens, the survey also shows that, regardless of the mode of transport, the share of passengers who feel that they are well informed of their rights by transport companies before undertaking a journey remains rather low. It is 40% for air passengers, 29% for boat or ferry passengers, 26% for those travelling by train and 26% for those traveling by coach.
Reacting to these results, Transport Commissioner Adina-Ioana Vălean said that passengers' rights should be “better known and easier to understand and enforced”.
In order to “ensure that people travelling in the EU are effectively protected”, she called on the EU Council and the European Parliament to reach an early agreement on the rail and air passenger rights files (see EUROPE 12398/8, 12374/11). To see the full results of the survey: https://bit.ly/2tftthZ (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)