Brussels, 16/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 17 February, the European Commission is to meet the national enforcement bodies for the provisions contained in Regulation 261/2004 (which took effect on 17 February 2005) offering better protection to air passengers in case of denied boarding, cancellations and long delays. The meeting will allow the Commission to take stock of one year's implementation of the passenger protection measures. It will present a report on the situation on 1 January 2007 with, where necessary, suggestions for improvement.
Although national enforcement bodies in the Member States are the first port of call for passengers who feel that their rights have not been respected, the Commission directly receives around 500 complaints from displeased air passengers each month, which has enabled it to come to a number of conclusions. First of all, citizens are better informed of their rights and are more willing to see them enforced. Also, denied boarding has decreased compared to previous years since, in 2005, fewer than 10% of passengers who contacted the Commission directly complained of denied boarding. Nonetheless, several problems do persist: 60% of passengers contacting the Commission directly did so complaining of cancellations and delays. The Commission has also taken Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Luxembourg before the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose into their national legislation the sanction mechanism applicable to airlines in the event of non-compliance with the regulation. The Commission has sent a reasoned opinion to Slovakia for the same reason.
The Commission trusts, moreover, that the national bodies will deal with settling all disputes between passengers and airline companies so that citizens do not have to undergo long and costly court action, which is not always the case today. Another point on the agenda of the meeting will be the notion of “extraordinary circumstances which is often used by carriers when flights are disrupted”. Although security remains the Commission's top priority, this notion of “extraordinary circumstances should not be used as a pretext for diminished consumer protection”, the Commission press release states.