EU mulls tightening flight delay compensation rules for passengers

Poland, which currently holds the six-month rolling presidency of the Council of the European Union, has unveiled plans to raise the threshold for compensation from a three hour delay to five hours, to the dismay of consumer groups.

Under current rules, which have been in place since 2005, passengers are entitled to compensation in the range of €250 to €600, depending on the distance of their flight and how long they have been delayed or if the flight was cancelled altogether. 

READ ALSO: What are your rights in Europe if your flight is delayed or cancelled?

Since those rules came into effect, airlines have seen compensation bills rise to a combined €3billion or so per year, due, mostly to the increase in the number of flights over the past 20 years.

Last year alone, more than 287million passengers were affected by flight cancellations and delays in Europe.

The revised plan seeks to raise the delay threshold to five hours and introduce new compensation brackets based on extended flight distances and delay time.

Airlines for Europe (A4E), an association of airlines including Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, Ryanair, easyJet and Volotea, accounting for 70 percent of air traffic in European skies – argues that current regulation “is too detailed and prescriptive in certain areas and, at the same time, too vague on essential points”.

This, it says, leads in turn “to numerous legal cases across the EU, with judges interpreting the regulation in different ways”. 

As a result, compensation is a major and steadily increasing expense for airlines every year. 

Passengers affected by disruptions are increasingly turning to specialist agencies to assist in their efforts to obtain reimbursement. 

AirHelp, which has helped more than 2.7million passengers win compensation since 2013, however, argues that the changes “would only serve to maximise airline profits, without taking into account the well-being of consumers.”

Airlines would, the firm said, “have even more opportunities to delay and cancel flights without any repercussions”.

It claimed that the changes would mean that 80 percent of delayed flights would result in no compensation for passengers.

There is no timescale on when, or even if, any proposed changes might take effect. The Council's position is not confirmed, despite the position of the current holders of the presidency. And the matter will then have to be discussed and agreed in the European Parliament before it could be adopted.