Nine organisations representing European consumers, industry and insurers called on the European Commission, in a joint statement on Wednesday 7 December, to propose “as a matter of urgency” a mandatory insolvency protection scheme for airlines and businesses.
The signatory organisations recall that 87 bankruptcies were recorded between 2011 and 2019, affecting some 5.6 million consumers. For each airline bankruptcy, the signatories add, consumers lose an average of €431 and 87% of this amount is not recoverable due to the lack of a specific mechanism.
While the co-signatories of the declaration stress that they welcome the European Commission’s strategy for sustainable and intelligent mobility and its statement that “stranded passengers should be repatriated and their tickets reimbursed in case of cancellations by carriers”, they also regret that in its revision of the Air Services Regulation, it proposes “only policy options that are far from sufficient to remedy the damage caused”.
The proposed policy options, including better information for passengers on optional insolvency insurance policies available on the market - or offered by airlines - “will, at best, only very partially solve some of the problems raised by airline insolvency”, the co-signatories say.
See the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/4jo (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)