EU court to examine if air passenger rights are 'collateral damage' in Covid-19 pandemic

Around 70% of all flights around Europe have been cancelled since the pandemic began last year. File Picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

A major EU institution has launched a review of whether the rights of European air passengers have been "collateral damage" in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) plans to assess whether or not the European Commission has "effectively safeguarded the rights of citizens who travelled by plane or booked flights during the coronavirus crisis". 

The report will also examine if Ireland and other EU member states took passenger rights into account when granting emergency state aid to their air travel industries.

Around 70% of all European flights around Europe have been cancelled since the pandemic began last year.

The ECA has said that "frequently uncoordinated emergency measures" adopted by different countries — like flight bans, quarantine measures, border closures and requiring a negative Covid-19 test before flying — only compounded the disruption of European air travel.

As a result, several EU countries were, according to the ECA, granted "unprecedented amounts of state aid" to airlines in order to keep them afloat.

Last month, the Irish Government’s €26m aid package for airport operators in Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Kerry and Donegal was approved by the European Commission.

However, the ECA believes that, despite EU countries allowing airlines more flexibility in terms of offering refunds, the rights of hundreds of thousands of passengers have not been properly respected, with hundreds of thousands of passengers being pressured into accepting vouchers, not being refunded on time, or not being refunded at all.

“In times of Covid-19, the EU and Member States have had to strike a balance between preserving air passenger rights and supporting the ailing airlines,” said Annemie Turtelboom, the ECA Member leading the audit.

Our audit will check that the rights of millions of air travellers in the EU were not collateral damage in the fight to save struggling airlines.

MEP for Ireland South, Deirdre Clune, was among those to welcome the ECA review.

"This is something we must consider when the time comes again when it is safe for our airports to fully operate," she said. 

"The EU aims to provide all air transport users with a uniform level of protection and this will not change. 

"It is a time now when we can learn from the last year and put measures in place to ensure passenger rights are properly protected into the future.”  

The ECA intends to publish its report before the beginning of the summer holiday season in the hopes of restoring EU citizen's trust in air travel.