EU struggling to co-ordinate re-opening of air travel this summer

Passengers at Terminal 2 arrivals at London Heathrow.

The European Commission is grappling with the thorny issue of vouchers for reopening air, ferry and rail travel by recommending governments protect consumers from the risk of travel firms going under during the Covid-19 economic storm.

It also wants to set down common terms for the rights of passengers to get refunds on vouchers amid the unprecedented crisis for European airlines and to put some sort of structure into the what it sees as a “gradual” lifting of restrictions.

European airlines such as Lufthansa and Air France-KLM alone have asked for billions of bailout aid from the German, French, and Dutch government in recent weeks as they face burning through huge amounts of cash with an idled fleet and no revenues.

Apart from the health considerations, part of the struggle facing the reopening of flights this summer is how airlines will reimburse the multi-millions they already owe customers in cancelled flights.

It comes as the Commission has struggled to come up with a coordinated approach for member states against proposals launched by private companies, including Ryanair - Europe’s largest airline - which earlier this week raised expectations that a significant portion of its European flights could begin again from early July, despite scepticism from some travel industry chiefs.

Significantly, the Commission talks of a “gradual” reopening of travel, and not the major reopening envisaged by Ryanair. The airline wants the mandatory wearing of face masks and for airports to screen the health of passengers check the temperature of passengers.

In attempting to wrangle back the initiative in its new Tourism and Transport Package, the Commission makes a highlight of an earlier recommendation for travel vouchers but this time suggests that member states could follow the lead of the US government which has given a state guarantee for its travel firms.

“With the aim of making vouchers attractive to passengers or travellers, member states might consider the adoption of schemes to support operators in the travel and transport sectors in line with union state aid rules,” the Commission said.

It suggests that voucher schemes should be an “attractive and reliable alternative” to cash repayments by protections against insolvency; should have a life of a minimum of 12 months; and customers with vouchers of over 12 months should also be reimbursed “in money no later than 12 months after the issuance of the voucher concerned”.

And it recommends that passengers should be able to travel “on the same route under the same service conditions” and offer the “same type of services or of equivalent quality as the terminated package” while the vouchers should also be transferable to other passengers at no extra cost.