The European Court of Auditors (ECA) published, on Tuesday 29 June, its special report on air passenger rights during the health crisis. The EU auditors’ assessment is clear: basic rights were not safeguarded and airlines did not respect the rules on reimbursement to users.
“One of the many consequences of the pandemic will have been its adverse effect on the rights of EU air passengers. While every effort has been made to support airlines and package-tour operators, far too little has been done to secure the rights of millions of people in the EU“, said Annemie Turtelboom, the ECA member responsible for the report.
While recognising the difficulties experienced by airlines during the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU auditors regret in particular that the granting of State aid to airlines was not conditional on passenger reimbursements.
Between March 2020 and April 2021, EU governments paid out almost 35 billion euros to keep European airlines afloat during the crisis (see EUROPE 12722/24). For its part, the Commission approved 54 State aid decisions within an average of thirteen days after notification, of which 23 were approved within one week.
Voucher as the only refund option
Most airlines, during the pandemic, did not offer passengers a choice between a refund and a voucher. Nor did they inform passengers of their right to redeem their vouchers for cash at any time.
Apart from not being legal, the report points out, this provided no real guarantee for passengers, given the risks of insolvency that have long plagued many companies.
In most cases, the legal refund periods of seven days for passengers who booked a flight and fourteen days for those who bought a seat on a flight as part of a package tour were far exceeded.
For their part, the European Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network have called on airlines to improve their handling of cancellations and refunds. To this end, a list of measures has been drawn up by the Commission and the CPC Network (see also other articles in this bulletin).
See the European Court of Auditors’ report (in French only): https://bit.ly/3vZauTr
See the Commission’s measures: https://bit.ly/2UbKhDE (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)