EU to make airlines pay for delays

[Capt.KAOS]

Important Decisions in Brussels

Seems some important decisions haven been made during the meeting of the European Transport Ministers in Brussels yesterday.

- "Single Sky" from 2005, incl. "flexible" blocks for border crossing air traffic.

- New European rules (both scheduled and charters) for ticket compensation, min.250 Euro (until 1500 km), 400 Euro (1500-3500 km), 600 Euro (3500 km+), notwithstanding the ticket price. When delay more than 2 hours airliners have to care for transfer to other transport, meals and lodging (RyanAir, Easy, eat your heart out!).....

This should rule out overbookings, but might result in increase of the (cheapest) airfares.

Cheers

KAOS

[akerosid]

I may be completely wrong about this, but do lo-cos actually overbook? I had always believed that a fundamental feature of the likes of FR, EZY etc, was that if you didn't show up, that was your tough luck and you don't get a refund. So, overbooking compensation doesn't arise.

I had been hoping to see some progress on the issue of a Common Transatlantic Aviation Area; as I understand, Ireland is the main fly in the ointment here, but heard nothing about the issue in what press releases I've seen so far. Was this discussed?

[Ex Servant]

So what do we make of this EU proposal to make airlines pay compensation to pax for delays? Lets be honest, alot of delays are not due to any fault on the part of the carrier. The low cost carriers say it may be the end of true low fares as they will have to factor it in to the price. Is it the big carriers owned by governments way of trying to stop them? Doesn't do much for free competition as far as I can see. More a case of I can't compete with you so I'll force you to charge what we do. If that happens those with the biggest networks etc are more likely to get the business and survive. Surprise Surprise back to square one, less choice for the paying punter and probably less jobs.

[EyesToTheSkies]

What about delays caused by passengers themselves? On the lash in the bar......doesn't check the screen......causes delay while bags are being offloaded......turns up before bags are found......gets on delayed flight.......claims compensation!

[quickturnaround]

Eyes to the skies, You have also encountered such pax? You know if I start searching for their bags and they show up before they are found in the belly afterall, I still refuse to take them with me, since they caused the delay in the first place. It helps offcourse if the groundstaff removes the ''jet-way'' first, something the groundstaff are willing to do always!

I had pretty good results with above treatment. In fact it is also company policy not to wait.

Greetz, QTA

[Roadtrip]

Can't wait to see what kind of mess that would create.

[PAXboy]

All of the above.

Who decides how much of the delay is the carrier and how much the pax? Old style carriers, post SABENA + SwissAir, getting frightened and using political muscle to try and change the game. Delays in ATC often are the result of lack of investment by politicians and now they want the tax payers to pay more for their tickets so that the airlines can recompense them???

What a fabulous, bureaucratic, paper generating, self-serving, nightmare.

A true political SABU (Self Adjusting B@lls UP, because the B@lls up automatically adjuts to make sure that it stays at maximum impact).