The Commission clarifies passenger rights on flight cancellations<\/b>, compensation and final ticket prices<\/b> amid crisis <\/b> in the Middle East<\/b>.<\/p>\n
New clarifications on the rights of millions of European travellers are being issued by the Commission<\/b>, just as the crisis in the Middle East is causing turbulence in air travel<\/b>, increases in fuel costs and intense concern about summer holidays<\/b>. Brussels makes clear that airlines<\/b> cannot suddenly pass on charges to passengers<\/b>, while confirming that compensation<\/b> for flight cancellations, refunds and the obligation to provide assistance at airports<\/b> remain in full force. At the same time, it opensdiscussion on flexibility in refuelling and slots rules<\/b>, as Europe attempts to limit the impact of the geopolitical crisis<\/b> on air transport and ticket prices<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Guidelines have been issued by the European Commission<\/b> on the rights of European passengers amid ongoing disruption to air travel<\/b> and price hikes, due to the Middle East crisis<\/b> and as passengers look to plan their summer travel<\/b>, as ERTnews.gr<\/b> notes.<\/p>\nRights<\/h3>\n
The rights of passengers in case of flight cancellations, namely the right to a refund, re-routing or return, assistance at the airport and compensation for last-minute cancellations, are normally applicable.<\/p>\n
In addition, airlines can only be exempted from paying financial compensation if they can prove that the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances, such as a local fuel shortage.<\/p>\n
It is also clarified that high fuel prices do not constitute an extraordinary circumstance.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Airline companies are obliged to display the final ticket price in advance. This is so that passengers do not face unforeseen expenses. Therefore, imposing additional charges after the fact, such as fuel surcharges, is not allowed.<\/p>\n
So those who buy their summer ticket today know that this will be the final price. Here it only gives a leeway to holiday packages and some travel agencies, but recognises the rights of passengers.<\/p>\n
The Commission’s directives contain a number of very big changes for airlines:<\/p>\n
– Exemption from the 90% refuelling rule (ReFuelEU Aviation) when extra fuel is required for safety reasons.
– Exemption from airport seat use obligations in case of fuel supply problems.<\/p>\n
No penalties for “justified non-use of seats” (Slot Regulation). That is, airlines are not penalized for either excess fuel or non-use of seats if there are justified reasons.<\/p>\n
And finally, there has been this big debate about whether to source type A fuel from the United States (this is fuel used in smaller aircraft).<\/p>\n
The Commission is currently stating that such a proper use can be made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Commission clarifies passenger rights on flight cancellations, compensation and final ticket prices amid crisis in the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}