EU complaints package for air travellers delayed by ash cloud

Air travellers fighting for refunds and compensation after being stranded by the volcanic ash crisis can use a standard Europe-wide “complaints package” available from today.

The package, available on the internet, includes a standard complaint letter in any of the EU languages, a list of addresses to send complaints, and advice on how to use the small claims courts or tackle out-of-court dispute procedures.

The package has been produced by the European Commission and the EU-wide network of European Consumer Centres (ECC-Net) in response to the growing numbers contacting the centres seeking help with claims.

The number of travellers contacting ECC-Net soared in the first week after the crisis closed air space and the Commission announced that normal consumer rights applied – refunds, re-routing and meal and accommodation costs because of delays. The only right waived because of what was a natural disaster was the right to financial compensation for delayed or cancelled flights.

EU health and consumer policy commissioner John Dalli said: “EU consumer rights apply even in extraordinary circumstances. In fact, talks on aiding the companies which suffered as a result of the ash crisis must be linked to their respect for passenger rights.”

He went on: “Today thousands of consumers affected by flight disruptions are still rightly clamouring for their rights to be respected in practice.

“My message to them is, do not hesitate to claim what is yours. If an airline or a tour operator continues to ignore your rights, a European Consumer Centre near you can be your next port of call.”

The complaints package is available via the ECC-Net website, and was launched as EU transport ministers met in Brussels vowing to step up moves towards what transport commissioner Olli Rehn called “a single European regulator for a single European sky”.

At the moment airspace is governed by the 27 national aviation authorities in the EU, centrally managed by Eurocontrol, which oversees flying in the air jurisdictions of a total of 38 countries.

Plans for a single regulator are already in the pipeline, but the ministers agreed today to speed up an accord in the wake of the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland.

Mr Rehn said afterwards the same thing would happen again, whether it was next week or in 20 years: “It will happen again, and volcanoes do not obey rules. So we need to be faster and more flexible in our response.

“Most importantly, we need a package of measures to ensure that millions of people and businesses never have to re-live the crisis of the last few weeks.

He went on: “We will fast track the Single European Sky package. We need a single European regulator for a single European sky.

“This would not solve every problem. But it would mean a much faster co-ordinated response in a crisis. Major elements of the Single Sky Package will be in place by end-2010, including a crisis cell.”

He said the crisis had exposed “structural weaknesses in the ability of different kinds of European transport to substitute for each other”.

He added: “No one can prevent a volcano eruption or other kinds of natural disaster. But we can build strong pan-European transport systems, so that different modes can ease the pressure when a crisis occurs.

“The Commission is working to identify major bottlenecks blocking transport connections between different modes. We will never compromise on safety, but we have to do everything possible to safeguard our citizens’ freedom to travel as well.”